Inclusion of disability issues in teaching and research in higher education
Open accessAbstract
Evidence suggests that the lack of inclusion of disability issues in the curricula of higher education institutions may result in the perpetuation of practices that discriminate against disabled people in the broader society. In light of this claim, this article investigates whether and how disability issues are included in the teaching and research of three faculties at the University of Cape Town (UCT), namely the faculties of Health Sciences, Humanities, and Engineering and the Built Environment. A survey of disability inclusion was conducted across the faculties, followed by interviews with selected participants. The study revealed low levels of disability inclusion, and that disability is not viewed as an issue of social justice and transformation overall. However, there are pockets of inclusion, the nature of which differs for each faculty. In the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, disability is included as an issue of legislation, space and environment, while the Faculty of Humanities focuses on the sociocultural and socio-economic impact of disability, and the Faculty of Health Sciences introduces disability with an emphasis on individual impairment, environmental effects, community-based rehabilitation and inclusive development, as well as the prevention and management of disability. We propose the creation of an institutional system that will build the capacity of lecturers to include disability in teaching and research across faculties, in line with UCT’s transformation agenda.
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Barriers for students with disabilities in South African higher education include exclusive classroom teaching practices.
“Among others, are the inaccessible infrastructure [ 30 ], barriers of high entry-level requirements into specific professional programmes [ 13 ], exclusive classroom teaching practices [ 31 , 32 ], an unwillingness among academic staff to include these students [ 33 ], and a lack of relevant and adequate AT and assistive devices, resulting in a digital divide [ 34 ].”
From Provision of Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities in South African Higher Education (2021) · cites this paper as [31]
The Abstract and ‘Disability and curriculum’ section describe limited inclusion of disability issues as a subject of teaching at UCT. They do not establish that classroom teaching practices exclude students with disabilities from participating. Searches for classroom exclusion and barriers to disabled students’ learning found no passage addressing that claim. (LLM, conf=0.73)
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Flagged first, then by citations
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“Of particular interest are the findings of Ohajunwa et al. (2014), who state that disability is not viewed as an issue of social justice in SAHE and propose that most challenges faced by students with disabilities can be solved through curricula.”
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“Among others, are the inaccessible infrastructure [30], barriers of high entry-level requirements into specific professional programmes [13], exclusive classroom teaching practices [31,32], an unwillingness among academic staff to include these students [33], and a lack of relevant and adequate AT and assistive device…”
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“Findings on accommodations made by the schools and adaptations to the design and construction of school buildings, which are crucial to inclusion of children in wheelchairs [33,34], were mixed.”
Background
- Authors
- Ohajunwa, C., Hardy, A., Mckenzie, J., & Lorenzo, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Venue
- Perspectives in Education
- Publisher
- University of the Free State
- Published
- 2014-09-30
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 104-117
- ISSN
- 0258-2236 (ISSN-L)
- 2519-593X
- OpenAlex
- W1546557822
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 3.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Perspectives in Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Perspectives in Education (cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Education and Employment
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport
- Keywords
- disability inclusion, disability studies, higher education curriculum, disability discrimination, social justice, transformation, lecturer capacity building, disability law, community-based rehabilitation, inclusive development
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