We work together with several counselling centres and interest groups. This enables us to provide comprehensive advice and the possibility to accompany current developments within as well as outside the university.

The main objective of the Hearing Sensitive University of Oldenburg is to optimise the quality of the study and working conditions of all students and staff of the C.v.O. University of Oldenburg. University of Oldenburg. The acoustic framework conditions are reviewed and suggestions for improvements are derived. One result of these activities is two barrier-free group study rooms in the university library, which have been available since April 2010.

In addition, two scholarships are awarded to students with speech comprehension impairments as part of a research project funded by the Randstad Foundation. Furthermore, positions are available for student assistants.

Another goal of the working group is to bundle Oldenburg's competences from the fields of science and practice on the topic of "hearing/ hearing impairment" and to develop visions of how a hearing-sensitive university can be designed for persons with and without hearing impairments.

The Clearing House "Hearing" of the Hearing Sensitive University of Oldenburg is part of the Outpatient Clinic for ReHabilitation and offers information, counselling, networking and research to

• Students,

• university staff,

• teachers,

• pupils and their families,

who are dependent on very good acoustic conditions. A need may arise, for example, due to an impairment of hearing as a result of hearing loss or a limitation in the area of auditory processing and perception. The same applies to people with a non-German mother tongue for whom foreign language tasks make concentration and listening comprehension difficult.

The aim is to provide individual support for people on their way to barrier-free living, learning and working. The specific needs of the interested parties determine the concrete cooperation.

Wiebke Hendeß has been counselling disabled and chronically ill students at the Oldenburg Student Union since 1999 and had already been active in self-help for disabled students for many years. She is a wheelchair user herself, completed her studies at the University of Oldenburg and has various additional qualifications in counselling disabled people. Therefore, she can advise those affected at eye level.

The counselling is based on the principles of peer counselling. When dealing with one's own disability, the limits but also the potentials can be considered together. Furthermore, the counsellor supports student self-help and also campaigns for the interests of disabled and chronically ill people nationwide. To this end, she works in various committees at the Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences, the Jade University of Applied Sciences and the university and is networked with many other counselling and information centres.

It goes without saying that the counselling sessions are subject to confidentiality. Counselling can also take place anonymously and is free of charge.

In many places, studying for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses involves considerable additional organisational and financial effort. The reason for this is the still inadequate situation at the universities. Against this background, the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft behinderter / chronisch kranker und nichtbehinderter Studierender und AbsolventInnen e.V. (BAG e.V.) was founded in 1996. (BAG e.V.) was founded, which changed its name to "BAG Behinderung und Studium e.V." in 2004.