The Inclusion and Support of Students With Disabilities in the South African Higher Education System

The intention of this chapter is to contribute to the scholarship of diversity, equity, and inclusivity in contemporary higher education. Its purpose is to develop an understanding of pedagogical issues concerning the inclusion and support of students with disabilities in the South African higher education system through literature review. The chapter will contribute to debate on policy imperatives and how these have informed practice, the social model of disability and its role in shaping educational provision, access and support constraints as products of intersectionality of disability and disablement, and possible ways to re-culture higher education for support.

Życie akademickie osób jąkających się w perspektywie społecznego modelu niepełnosprawności i koncepcji structural vulnerability

Stuttering is a speech disorder that affects approximately 50 million people worldwide. It makes everyday life difficult not only for children but also for adults. In psychology and speech therapy the social aspects of stuttering are emphasized, but so far this problem has not been studied in the context of academic life. My research is devoted to this issue in Poland I analyze the academic life of people who stutter through the prism of the social model of disability, the category of structural vulnerability, and exclusion. This study revealed the orality of the universities and a number of academic traditions based on well-established practices and social structures that make stuttering students and academic teachers vulnerable or socially disabled.

The Disability Rights Movement

This chapter provides an overview of the social movement advocating for disability rights, including its origins, goals, strategies, structure, and impact. The chapter’s primary focus is on the movement in the United States, although developments in other nations are also discussed. The chapter reviews the origins of the disability rights movement in the 20th century in response to stigma and discrimination associated with disabilities and the medical model of disability; addresses the movement’s advocacy strategies, as well as the social model of disability that provided the conceptual underpinning for its goals and activities; and describes how the major components of the movement, including cross-disability organization, were brought together through collaboration and the common experiences of disability culture.

Disability, Education, and Work in a Global Knowledge Economy

Governments around the world press for higher levels of education and skills for all their young people. They believe that, despite recessions and job losses, people are “human capital” who need to invest in their own training and help grow economies. In England in 2019, disabled adults made up 20% of potential workers, but only half of them were employed. This chapter discusses the changing nature of the labor market and the place of young people regarded as having special educational needs or disabilities in education and training, noting that despite a shift to a social model of disability, social and work environments often fail to adapt to those with disabilities. Education and training for disabled young people have usually been at lower levels and the jobs on offer for them lower skilled and waged. But, more recently in England, disabled students have been recognized as a significant presence with more taking higher skilled and professional jobs after graduation. The chapter briefly compares the situation in England with that of Germany and Finland.

Inclusive, multi-partner co-creation for the teaching of special educational needs and disabilities in higher education

Co-creation of curriculum content is a growing priority across Higher Education and, while many projects stress the market benefits to institutions and students, this research instead focussed on promoting inclusion, social justice and anti-oppressive practice, with theoretical underpinnings in the social model of disability. This joint research project between staff and students at De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester, led to the co-creation of a Level 6 SEND module on the BA Education Studies programme. The co-designed research explores how the experiences of neurodivergent people, those with SEND, their families and practitioners, can inform teaching practices and module specifications at undergraduate level in Education Studies. Qualitative data, collected via questionnaires, focus groups and interviews with students, parents, practitioners and academics, revealed rich, diverse perspectives on the knowledge and understanding that future educators need, as well as the most inclusive methods for teaching and assessing that knowledge. The practice-based implications of the research included co-creation of a Level 6 SEND module which recognises value in ‘non-professional’ voices and embeds anti-oppressive practice in its design, delivery and assessment.

Social Model of Disability: A Small-Scale Survey of the Bangladeshi Community in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

This study employs a small-scale survey to investigate the lives of Bangladeshi disabled residents in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Survey instruments include individual interviews and focus group discussions with people with disabilities in the Bangladeshi community. The paper also investigates the health and social care activities of Tower Hamlets Council through the lens of the social model of disability. The findings show that there are numerous facilities available for people with disabilities, but there is still a lack of satisfaction with the services provided to the community.

The repercussion of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Brazilian courts

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was the first treaty to be incorporated as a Constitutional law, according to the determination of the Brazilian Constitution for human rights treaties. In addition, the Optional Protocol was also promulgated, recognizing the competence of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to supervise the application of the treaty in Brazil. This study aims to analyze the impact of the Committee and Convention in Brazilian courts, specifically in the courts that have jurisdiction to rule on cases based on treaties, that is, the Federal Justice. An extensive survey of judicial decisions was carried out in order to verify whether the protections of the treaty are applied. This research focus on the efforts to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities on the Brazilian legal system, based on the commitment to international cooperation to guarantee and promote the rights and principles announced in the CRPD, particularly regarding the social model of disability, which is the main protective concept used in the treaty.

Interactions between the Public and Assistance Dog Handlers and Trainers

This research aimed to explore the experiences of handlers and trainers of disability assistance dogs in terms of the types of interactions they had with members of the Aotearoa NZ (NZ) public and how these interactions were perceived, interpreted, and managed. A qualitative method, guided by an interpretive approach and social constructionism, was utilised to collect data via semi-structured interviews with six handlers and six trainers of assistance dogs. Data were analysed using thematic analysis with the social model of disability as the theoretical base. Findings indicated that participants regularly faced a complex range of unique interactions due to various factors such as the public’s lack of knowledge and understanding of the dog’s role and right of access to public places. While participants encountered brief friendly comments about the dog and its role, other encounters involved long conversations, invasive personal questions, interference with their dogs, and denied access to businesses, cafés, restaurants, and public transport. These findings underpin the need to provide more education to the public on the etiquette of engaging with handlers and their assistance dogs and more support for businesses to understand the legal rights of handlers. Through education and support to change societal attitudes and remove structural barriers, disabled people using assistance dogs may be able to independently participate in community life and be fully included without hindrance.

Strategies Used by Teachers in Readiness for Mainstreaming of Learners with Special Needs in Public Primary Schools in Masaba South Sub County. A Case Study of Kisii County, Kenya

Mainstreaming is a concept and practice of educating learners with challenges in regular education settings. Mainstreaming advocates for education of all categories of learners without discriminating the specific group of individuals with disabilities. The study sought to assess strategies used by teachers in readiness for mainstreaming of learners with special needs in public primary schools in Masaba South Sub County, Kisii County, Kenya. The study was underpinned by the Social Model of Disability theory. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 234 teachers while purposive sampling was used to select the 25 headteachers from the schools which were used in the study. Questionnaires were employed for data collection. A pilot study was carried out in one of the schools within the study area. The study adopted survey research design to investigate the study variables. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in analyzing data. The findings of the study found out that teachers’ attitude, professional development and experience influence mainstreaming. The study also observed that for mainstreaming to be achieved, the curriculum needs to be structured, teachers should be trained in special needs education, and the school environment should meet the needs of learners with special needs. It is recommendable that the government and all education stakeholders should jointly enhance expansion of facilities in the already established schools. This will encourage all teachers, trained or not to be ready to handle all categories of learners in the mainstream settings in Masaba South Sub County.

“This journey has definitely changed me”: An ethnographic narrative exploring disabled peoples’ lives through embodied experiences and identity negotiation

<p>Following calls from both disability studies and anthropology to provide ethnographic accounts of disability, this thesis presents the narratives of nine people living with disability, focusing on what disability means to them, how it is incorporated into their identities, and how it shapes their lived experiences. While accounts of disability from disability studies often focus on the social model of disability (Shakespeare 2006) and emphasise social stigma and oppression (Goffman 1967, Susman 1994), anthropological accounts often emphasise the suffering and search for cures (Rapp and Ginsburg 2012) that is assumed to accompany disability. Both approaches have their benefits, but neither pay particularly close attention to the personal experiences of individuals, on their own terms. By taking elements from both disciplines, this thesis aims to present a balanced view that emphasises the lived experiences of individuals with disability, and uses these experiences as a starting point for wider social analysis. The primary focus of this thesis is understanding how disability shapes an individual’s identity: what physical, emotional, and social factors influence how these people are perceived – by themselves and others? Through my participants’ narratives I explore how understandings of normal bodies and normal lives influence their sense of personhood, and investigate the role of stigma in mediating social encounters and self-concepts. Furthermore, I undertake a novel study of the role of technology in the lives of people living with disability. My work explores how both assistive and non-assistive (‘general’) technologies are perceived and utilised by my participants in ways that effect not just the physical experience of disability, but also social perceptions and personal understandings of the body/self. I argue that although the social model of disability is an excellent analytical tool, and one which has provided tangible benefits for disabled people, its political nature can sometimes lead to a homogenisation of disabled experiences; something which this thesis is intended to remedy by providing ethnographic narratives of disability, grounded in the embodied experiences of individuals.</p>