The individual's potential in terms of qualifications and the knowledge with which he or she is equipped to master job related tasks will be important. Social reality- including real life conditions in occupational life and in private life - has changed so radically that reorientation is the order of the day. Accordingly the distance learning system is compelled to seize and utilise every educational opportunity in order to guarantee the hoped for learning success and subsequent acquisition of qualifications on the part of handicapped students. Such an approach will uphold the interpretation of education as being a permanent life long process. Born of the consciousness of our times, increasingly bold endeavours are being undertaken to turn the individual's entitlement to education as laid down in the basic law into a right to education enabling handicapped persons to be fully integrated into society.

The integration of disabled persons into society is a central issue. 'Social rights' do not only represent the legal basis for the interpretation and application of social legislation, but they are also recognised generally as the guiding principle applied to the policy regarding rehabilitation and disabled persons in the Federal Republic of Germany. Of the principles derived from this, the following require special emphasis:

• the aim of integrating disabled persons into society,
• the principle of finality according to which the necessary assistance must be offered to every disabled person and every person who is in danger of becoming disabled, regardless of the cause of their disability, even when responsibility for this assistance is held by a number of different funds and institutions whose eligibility requirements for the provision of assistance vary,
• the principle of intervention at the earliest possible stage in order to minimise the degree and effects of disability and to compensate as far as possible for unavoidable effects, and
• the principle of individual assistance, which is tailored to the actual needs of disabled individuals and individuals who are in danger of becoming disabled, and which must take account of their specific needs situation by suitable means.

Severely disabled persons are persons whose degree of disability is at least 50% and who either live legally in the Federal Republic of Germany, have their usual residence there or are employed there.

These include

• nearly one million severely disabled persons in open employment,
• about 140,000 disabled persons working in sheltered workshops,
• about 176,500 unemployed severely disabled persons, and
• another about 5.33 million severely disabled persons who are not involved in working life.

The proportion of severely disabled persons in the relevant age group of the population:

age group	under 15	15 - 24	25 - 34	35 - 44	45 - 54	55 - 64	over 64
%	0,77	1,29	1,95	2,98	7,09	18,11	26,29

It is important that defining the terms should not further the mental and social exclusion of people with disabilities, but instead should serve as an indication of their individual problems and opportunities, and also indicate how each person can gain access to the assistance which he/she requires for integration into society. The aim is also to realise the degree of progress and standards achieved by individual groups of disabled persons for all other groups and to work towards a life which is 'as normal as possible' for all disabled persons and their relatives.

It is the primary task of education to promote the capacity for learning and education of the individuals as much as possible in the light of their particular disability, if necessary with forms of assistance specific to the disability. Moreover, those affected must learn to cope in a world which is anything but tailored to their disability; they must learn to accept and live with their disability. As well as imparting educational qualifications, then, education must provide practical assistance towards individual and social integration and it must do so not only in the pre-school education, schools, vocational training centres and in colleges and universities but also in other forms of further education. To counter the danger of excessive protection and special conditions resulting in isolation, the principle to be adopted is 'as much special assistance as necessary, as much shared learning as possible'.

Pre-school measures exist - with different grades of emphasis between the several Länder - as follows:

general nurseries for children and special nurseries, in some cases with integrated services, as well as

special school nurseries in which disabled children are deliberately prepared for going to school, frequently in the form of a day centre.

Nurseries offer a favourable starting-point for the education of disabled and non disabled children alike, as the forms of individual assistance in operation are flexible and it is possible for them to accustom themselves to social contact since, in contrast to schools, there is no need to standardise performance. The results obtained from model trials have shown that any child looked after in a special nursery can also be brought up with non disabled children if the centre has the facilities available to assist a disabled child.

School education is regulated in the laws relating to schools and special schools in the federal regions, in implementing regulations as well as in various decrees (of which the details may differ from region to region). According to this body of legislation, disabled children and young people should receive as much educational assistance as possible to ensure that they can achieve the educational aims of ordinary schools. In addition, it is attempted to assist as many disabled children and young people as possible in regular schools and to provide additional teaching aids and other suitable types of care where required. Where disabled children and young people cannot receive sufficient assistance or the assistance they require in other types of schools, they must be helped in special schools towards achieving those educational aims which are within their capabilities. There the disabled child is assisted in obtaining general school leaving qualifications, if the child's abilities allow it.

The Federal Republic of Germany has at its disposal a differentiated and well organised system of special schools whose aims are to improve the special assistance required by disabled children. At present there are special schools for

• children who are educationally subnormal
• children with damaged sight (blind, partially blind)
• children with damaged hearing (deaf, partially deaf)
• deaf and mute children
• mentally disabled children (those able to be taught practical skills), autistic children,
• maladjusted children (children difficult to educate)
• physically disabled children
• sick children
• children with speech disorders.

Special assistance for disabled persons is required in the area of university education. Section 2, subsection 5 of the Skeleton Agreement for Universities requires universities to make it their duty to take account of the special needs of handicapped students. To improve their study opportunities, the German Union of Students has set up a central advisory service for disabled applicants and students which document the possibilities for study available to disabled persons throughout the country and also provide information and advice. It is necessary to mention that open university programmes offer a great degree of self determination with regard to the place of learning, learning aims and learning speed and therefore, offer considerable advantages to disabled students.

'Disabled' and 'non-disabled' students have equal access to assistance to promote study under the Federal Training Promotion Act. The act embodies certain special provisions to compensate for deficiencies due to disability. Thus disabled persons receive assistance benefits for a period by which a course of study is extended due to disability beyond the maximum term of assistance. The assistance exceeding the normal time because of disability is granted as a subsidy and not - as usual - as half loan.

Handicapped students are entitled to solidarity and support so that they can find their niche in university life and are enabled to plan their study routine in accordance with their personal needs and goals. It is a prerequisite for the participation of handicapped students in a scientific community that these students be given the opportunity to become integrated into study activities just like any other member of a university or other higher education institution. Only in this way can living and study conditions for handicapped students be adjusted adequately. Focusing educational policy aims and planning in the social integration of handicapped students and would-be students is born of - and indeed signalises - a changed awareness and a broad recognition of the right of the handicapped to become full members of society.

This goal can be realised only if handicapped students can rest assured that their entitlement to study-supportive services intended to compensate specific needs and to ensure that these needs will be met will be honoured. Handicapped students have rights. They are not recipients of well-meant charitable financial assistance for which they are expected to be grateful. The basic rights of handicapped students and would be students to equal participation in distance study programmes, too, has so far not been implemented to the desirable extent.

Handicapped persons as a conceivable target group for the German Open University, the FernUniversität, were, however, already included in the planning phase for this type of higher education institution. We know precious little about the prerequisites, modalities and possibilities of distance studies for handicapped persons. It is also a controversial issue in the debate concerning the optimisation of study opportunities for the handicapped. There are those who consider this an 'ideal solution' in view of the manifold impediments and difficulties encountered by handicapped students in their daily study routine. Others consider that in this way handicapped person are segregated from participation in attendance studies and that this prevents the acquisition of experience through participation in study programmes together with non-handicapped and handicapped students.

The FernUniversität is therefore endeavouring to provide handicapped students with study courses giving due consideration to students' different handicaps and their personal living environment. In so doing, it can take account of the specific contexts or expectations of the handicapped and, indeed, provide study programmes for this group via the particular teaching methods used. To this end, it orients its efforts to the general basis for the contemporary appreciation of education and continuing education in our advanced industrialised society. This is based on the inviolability of the dignity of man as set out in the basic law and on the individual's basic right to education and training in the democratic state. This applies without restriction to the individual's status on the employment market, to age or to sex.

The specific goal of the FernUniversität as regards handicapped members of our society is revealed in the following idealistic description of the overall situation in distance learning courses; the handicapped adult embarks on a course of study corresponding to the specific needs, interests and requirements of his or her individual life situation. In so doing, the student continues to live to a very great extent within the confines of his or her particular social environment. The individual is not, however, governed by the autodidactic conditions of distance learning, but instead maintain contact from a distance with the distance study organisation providing information, advice, tutoring and guidance.

Partially deficient structures in higher education also point, however, to the special importance of distance education for handicapped status groups. For many handicapped students at attendance-based higher education institutions, distance studies may represent a satisfactory complementary and basic variant of higher education studies, designed in particular to eliminate the major interruptions in the regular pattern of study in attendance-based study courses which are experienced by handicapped students and by those who are chronically ill. Distance teaching represents an important variant, which offsets the disadvantages confronting the students targeted by attendance-based higher education institutions.

Integration - in the sense of the full participation in all branches of study on the part of handicapped person and those threatened by the possibility of becoming handicapped calls for orientation to the points of view, ideas and interests of handicapped students themselves who are participating in distance study programmes, how they regard and interpret their lives, their real-life situation and the familiar barriers and obstacles to their personal development. Two aspects will acquire particular importance: individualisation' and 'living an independent life'.

The act of liberating oneself from restrictive supervision and dependence on others and the opening-up of ever new options and opportunities in life are in stark contrast to the loss of security, personal safety and the continuity of life and, possibly, becoming assimilated into anonymous support systems. The term 'independent living' is linked to a new concept of the relationship between the state of being handicapped on the one hand, and society on the other - a society which itself generates handicaps in many sectors by practising many different forms of discrimination. Consequently, a new approach is required with regard to traditional work with handicapped persons and relevant policy. In the lives of handicapped people, and also in work with and for them, sometimes considerable changes occur which call for the abandonment of the traditional, deficit-oriented image of handicapped persons as being a group liable to require early pensions and rights to representation and which call for a reorientation of measures and efforts relating to the handicapped. At the same time, this entails a shift in thinking, catering to the needs of handicapped persons.

During the past twenty years, higher education institutions in and outside Germany have increasingly adopted distance education as a method of teaching and learning within the framework of studies for handicapped students. This has been done either in the form of programmes offered in addition to the traditional forms of teaching and study at the university concerned or as its main activity.

In a more or less differentiated form, studies concerning the 'handicapped' target group within the framework of distance teaching (distance teaching and distance learning) have been carried out in Western European countries and in transatlantic counties. Comparative data relating to foreign distance education institutions form the aspect of adjusting study systems to the respective need of handicapped students provide a very accurate picture of the individual institutions. Of course, it must not be forgotten that these differences exist with regard to enrolment conditions, duration and quality of the study course offered, the methods employed in the design of courses as well as the teaching methods and media employed. Numerous other specific differences are due on the one hand to the specific national education system and to the social, political and economic context in which the respective distance education institutions function in the individual countries. On the other hand, these differences are partly also due to the specific organisation structures of the institutions concerned and to the goals envisaged. Four levels can be distinguished in the adaptation of foreign distance education systems to the study- and learning-related needs of handicapped students:

Level I	Adaptation to the individual case; no systematic addressing of the needs of the handicapped
Level II	Adaptation to the individual case; systematic addressing of the needs the handicapped
Level III	Target group-specific, systematic development and implementation of organisational measures and aids
Level IV	Target group-specific study contents

Innovations designed to introduce a distance study system 'better adapted' to the needs of the handicapped are to be found in all foreign distance education institutions. Most of these institutions also employ aids provided by the media or changes in the structure of teaching and study guidance in order to bring about enhanced individualisation.

In most foreign distance education institutions - though not in all countries - distance teaching is systematically employed for the education and training of the handicapped in manifold ways handicapped persons are not per se excluded from distance education as a specific form of study by virtue of their physical state or psychological situation. They are the target of innovations. Depending on the respective distance education system, broad and narrow ranges of adaptive measures can be discerned. The nature of the handicap usually governs the intensity with which the handicapped person's expectations, interests and problems are studied. The handicap determines the type of organisational and study-content related adaptation. The German situation can be compared with the situation in other European and non-European countries: distance education is considered an excellent opportunity for meeting the education requirements and preferences expressed by handicapped people.

Assistance in the individualisation of the study process.

Due consideration of the social needs of handicapped students.

The advantages of distance education are obvious. Handicapped students state that the major reasons for their embarking on distance education are the flexible duration of studies and the student's ability to determine the volume of study work, as well as the possibilities for engaging in distance studies while pursuing a gainful occupation and for studying at home. In the development and introduction of appropriate innovative measures and adaptations designed to compensate difficulties encountered by handicapped students owing to their particular handicap, the distance education system must take into account the following facts: specific groups of handicapped persons have a special need for support during their participation in distance education: the physically handicapped, the blind and others with impaired vision, the deaf and those with impaired hearing. The general public- and also 'those directly concerned' - have a very high opinion of the FernUniversität, although from the point of view of higher education teaching it must be stated that to date handicapped students have by no means exploited the full range of opportunities for study open to them at the FernUniversität in Germany the following results have been found and should be considered for further developments in this field:

To date, only very few individuals with impaired hearing have applied for participation in distance education. These individuals found it difficult to cope with the system for organisational and contents-related reasons. In view of the manifold need for help and support in this sector, it must be considered that the problems occurring at the FernUniversität have still largely not been satisfactorily solved. The aids identified so far for the impartment of teaching contents and for ensuring that they are properly taught and assimilated can represent one way of providing support specifically for distance students with impaired hearing.

In view of the increasing popularity of distance education with students with impaired vision, it is imperative that complete study courses be set up for this group of students and that the FernUniversität create a pool of aids in its different institutions with a view to equipping workstations for blind students and those with impaired vision. Furthermore the FernUniversität must continue to be flexible, as it has been in the past, in meeting the requirements of the individual handicapped and with regard to credentialling and regulations governing written supervised examination.

First and foremost, physically handicapped students at the FernUniversität demand that the planning of structural elements at their place of study be geared to their specific needs. The existing barriers and obstacles which hamper the daily living and study routine for handicapped students are to be removed. Additional facilities specifically for handicapped students (for example ramps) and structural alterations (special toilets, lifts) are required not only in the headquarters of the FernUniversität in Hagen, but particularly also in the study centres referred to.

Traditional teaching approaches can be further developed, tested and revised, incorporating the adjustments to the specific needs of the handicapped as described above. The findings of relevant research carried out in Germany and in other countries concerning the state-of-the-art and envisaged goals of the application of new information and communications technologies will, in the future, constitute valuable aids in the organisation of the academic teaching tradition with the framework of distance education for handicapped students.

The importance of the media for handicapped students in view of the state-of-the-art of teaching at the FernUniversität is undisputed. The impact of the media is now so far-reaching that, particularly with regard to developments over the past few years, the phrase `innovation boom' is appropriate. Since the standard medium used continues to be study material in the form of print media prepared on the basis of the requirements of learning psychology, the media can become increasingly important by virtue of their function, which is that of relieving isolation by establishing contacts and communication. Of course, we should not allow ourselves to fall into a state of euphoria about the concepts at the FernUniversität with regard to teaching approaches and the use of the media in instruction. They do not represent the royal road, the sole possibility, whereby a solution to the problems involved in distance education geared the needs of handicapped students would, as it were, naturally present itself.

The tasks for the FernUniversität - namely to instruct handicapped would-be students by providing information and guidance on the range of study programmes available and offering decision-making aids geared to each individual student - should, in future, be fulfilled in such a way that each individual is enabled to plan his or her studies in harmony with his or her personality, personal situation in life and future professional requirements. Such a goal can be attained more rapidly via the employment of a system of media-supported educational guidance tailored to the requirements of the distance education system. Here, priority is given to the area of the further development of and utilisation of utterly different audio-visual and electronic media. These must always be regarded as complementary resources and as a preparation for personal guidance: they draw attention to the opportunities for face-to-face guidance provided at decentralised institutions maintained by the FernUniversität and located closer to the individual student's place of residence.

The present situation ascertained during the relevant study available on the possibilities for students in wheelchairs to participate in study programmes at all the study centres maintained by the Distance University furnishes initial indications with regard to improvements and modernisation. In order to ensure that these opportunities are enforced and guaranteed, work with, and for, handicapped students must become one of the priority goals at the FernUniversität. It would thus be possible to gradually introduce and establish those conditions which would enable a systematic approach to be adopted in addressing the needs and interests, provision of counselling and support for handicapped students and would-be students at the FernUniversität. It would be a welcome development if full-time staff were to be entrusted with providing information, counselling and support for specific target groups. In addition, the institution of a cross-sectoral 'committee for students in specific study situations' - which, nonetheless, would be firmly integrated in the university departments - could be set up. A centre for supporting the needs of students in specific study situations could represent the point of departure for setting up and developing a first mobile study centre. The following reasons would advocate the further development and expansion of such a centre: the provision of support from examination offices which would assist severely handicapped students sitting for examinations 'on the spot', support provided by the representatives of the fields of study taught at the FernUniversität; support from the new division of academic counselling/study centres in the department for 'Student and academic affairs' at the FernUniversität and performance of the task of offering the students a detailed concept geared to individual requirements and subsequently establishing the details of this concept within their personal study programme in a binding manner.

With a view to optimising the prerequisites for participation in studies at the FernUniversität, the centre promoting studies for handicapped students would be obliged, working in conjunction with the officer in charge of handicapped students issues, to incorporate the individual concerns, needs and interests of handicapped study applicants and students in the academic bodies as well as in the university administration and the student welfare service. A mobile centre for the promotion of studies for the handicapped should fulfil the following functions: General academic counselling provided by travelling tutors; the provision of qualified counselling via existing study centre; the central provision of sign language interpreter; participation in the production and distribution of counselling and teaching media geared to the requirements of handicapped students; the drafting, implementation and evaluation of orientation phases; guaranteed compensation measures.

A model of a mobile centre for the promotion of studies could provide handicapped students with better information and improved additional support which would cater better to their individual expectations and opportunities. It is imperative that handicapped students and self help groups participate in the elaboration of the concept for the implementation of the measures designed to help them.

In the course of the coalescence of the European Union, European structure - including structures in the area of distance studies and distance education research - should continue to grow together in order to constitute a pan-European distance education environment. These ambitious goals cannot be achieved overnight. Distance education can represent an innovative part of the education and training of those concerned in a Europe which is progressing towards unity. Distance education is a declared goal of the European Union. The 'opening up of boundaries' via distance studies is aspired to - not merely for economic reasons. On the contrary, it is one of many steps to be taken towards establishing a Europe of the citizens- a step in the direction of the European citizen, with a view to establishing a European Union which intends to be more than a Europe of merchants.

The new single market in Europe does indeed mean more than the mere free movement of goods. Every citizen may live, learn and work in any of the Member States - this constitutes the right to mobility. In the Treaty on European Union (Article 125 c) it is expressly stated that the Community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging co-operation between Member States for the contact of teaching and the organisation of education systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity. The 'promotion of the development of distance teaching' is stressed particularly as being on of the goals of the Community's activities. One of the measures to be taken in order to establish 'mobility in Europe' is the establishment - under Article 57 of the EEC Treaty - of directives for the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications. This is to ensure that the different regulations existing in the EU Member States governing the taking up of professional work shall either be standardised or existing national training programmes shall be mutually recognised. There is a specific need for harmonising regulations with regard to the crediting and recognition of study periods. Another open issue is the recognition of study periods completed in other countries outside Germany - in other words the problem of whether studies completed in other countries can be accepted towards an examination to be taken in Germany.

To date, widely differing decisions have been taken with regard to the crediting and recognition of studies in other countries and depend on the discipline studied, the study venue in Germany and abroad and the respective study course pursued. No firm rules have been established. This makes it more difficult to provide counselling and to plan study curricula for individual handicapped students or chronically ill students. For the Europe of the future it will be imperative that, as far as university-level distance education is concerned, study credits earned in one Member State meet with unqualified recognition in another Member State. This task virtually calls for an attempt at 'squaring the circle': it is an impossible task.

The study regulations and study systems prevailing in all the Members States are so complex and at the same time different that this task will take quite some time: different study requirements, study-related degrees of difficulty and levels as well as heterogeneous examination regulations preclude any attempt at complete standardisation for the time being. The idea that a handicapped participant in distance education can study at a number of different European distance education institutions, earning his or her credits in the process in order to sit for the examination of his or her choice at a FernUniversität or traditional institution of higher education on the conclusion of the study programme is probably utopian.