Solidarity Before Differences: A student-led initiative for visually impaired students at the University of Belgrade

The "Solidarity Before Differences" initiative was launched in 2023 at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade, Serbia, as part of the regional project "Youth 4 Inclusion, Equality and Trust". The initiative began as a public advocacy campaign on social media with the ultimate goal of presenting the issue of a lack of access to literature for blind and visually impaired students to decision-makers with the proposal to produce audio books. 

Historically, the Faculty lacked adequate literature for students with visual impairments, who had to technically adapt literature to their personal needs through the University Library, in a process that was both time-consuming and expensive. Notably, this was an issue that had previously been discussed at the Faculty of Political Sciences, making subsequent advocacy attempts easier and familiar to decision-makers.

The creators of the "Solidarity Before Differences" campaign, Andrea Ikodinović, Vanja Malešević and Nikola Trbojević, were united around the same aim: all students at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade must have equal conditions of education. The student-led team believed that the Faculty of Political Sciences should be an inclusive place, where every student, regardless of obstacles, should have adequate literature to complete their studies. 

Despite being aware of the workload and the impossibility of rapid implementation, the creators sought to assemble all the basic literature for all 4 departments at the Faculty, as well as that of undergraduates. Works on the audio books began in June 2023 at the Faculty’s radio station Slušaonica 6.

With the support of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, students promoted the initiative through social media, which had a significant impact on the initial phase of the project. Through effective use of funds, namely advertising activities on social media, greater visibility was achieved, which proved crucial for the successful start of audio book production activities.

Recording began at the Faculty, but they soon realised that the studio’s capacity was limited. “The enthusiasm of volunteers to read, exceeded the capabilities of Slušaonica 6 - we had as many as 150 interested individuals. To accommodate this large response, we sought support from other studios through social media, who could lend us their spaces and equipment,” explained creator Andrea Ikodinović.

As Katarina Stanimirović pointed out, “Students can listen to recordings through audio-recorders, mobile phones, mp3 players, leaving their computer free for note-taking. This aspect is important to make it easier to rewind sentences without interference from the sounds of the speech software we typically use. Professional audio books will undoubtedly facilitate learning for the blind on multiple levels.”

Vanja Malešević, one of the creators, emphasised that the original goal exceeded the resources available and they could not foresee the extent of the workload nor the time necessary to read the entire collection of literature. “Additional resources are required in order to realise such an extensive project and would make the production of audio books significantly more efficient,” she stated. Nevertheless, the students are very proud of the 3 audiobooks created so far and which are currently in the editing process. Besides, they have also recorded and edited shorter texts and an additional 7 textbooks are currently being read by volunteers in studios.