1. EMPATHIZE

- Who are they?

University students, between the ages of 18-26, of any gender, of different ethnicities and backgrounds, of all sexual orientations, that have certain disabilities, such as kinetic problems or cognitive dis-functions, that prevent them from effective mobility around the area of the university. They often express their need of an escort to accompany them in their classes, according to the time of their schedule, through social media and sometimes, through publications. They feel desperate, helpless and frustrated. They usually have to cover long distances to reach their classrooms, because the university is spread across the central town of Limassol.

2. DEFINE

- What do they need?

Students with mobility challenges often cannot find an escort to move them around in the different classrooms for their lessons in the university. The lack of an escort has a lot of negative consequences for these students. It makes it difficult to attend their lessons, and this affects in a negative way their psychology. This can adversely affect their performance in their studies. The main cause is the inconsistent student program of studies that obligates the escort to work full time with a relatively low salary for this task. In addition, the escort needs some additional skills such as patience and the capability of providing psychological support to the students with mobility challenges. Also, they are obliged to have a driving license and to be able to develop friendly relationships with the student that has the mobility challenge. Efforts have been made in the past to find an escort with negative results.

3. IDEATE