PAA – ACADEMIC ACCESSIBILITY PLAN: FROM INDIVIDUAL PLANNING TO INSTITUTIONAL CO-RESPONSIBILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

This theoretical and propositional article, based on bibliographic and documentary research, analyzes contributions of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to Higher Education and proposes the Academic Accessibility Plan (Plano de Acessibilidade Acadêmica – PAA) as a pedagogical-institutional instrument for identifying barriers, agreeing on reasonable accommodations, defining responsibilities, and recording, monitoring and reviewing accessibility conditions throughout the academic trajectory. Studies on individualized planning, accessibility and student retention are articulated with the Foucauldian analytics of normalization and governmentality, which makes it possible to problematize the very act of individualizing and recording. An exploratory survey of open sources identified similar instruments under other names, but found no consolidated academic use of the expression Academic Accessibility Plan with the conceptual architecture presented here. As a result, the article proposes a definition of the PAA, a co-responsibility matrix involving the student, faculty, course coordination, the Accessibility Center and the institution, and a minimum structure for the document, with review at least once per semester and strictly necessary recording. It concludes that the PAA may foster student autonomy, well-grounded teaching decisions and pedagogical, administrative and legal security, provided that it remains subject to critique regarding its normalizing and bureaucratizing effects.