Improving Processes, Practices and Structures in South African Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter presents the voices of students with disabilities on improving the structures and practices in an institution of higher education in South Africa. This has been motivated by the continued exclusion of students with disabilities in learning, despite their increased access to higher education, resulting in high dropout, as well as delayed and low throughput by the particular students. Data were collected through interviews conducted with students with disabilities who studied the professional degrees of Medicine, Law and Education at an institution of higher education. The specific structures to be improved were physical structures like the built environment and transport as well as the practice of classroom teaching. A conceptual framework built on theoretical concepts drawn from decolonial theory and critical disability theory was used to inform the study. The findings revealed that the students with disabilities’ voice on improving the structures and practices was partnership among responsible stakeholders, adequate funding, self-advocacy by students with disabilities and total transformation of the system of higher education. The argument for this chapter is that the voice of students with disabilities could improve the specific structures and practices in higher education because they have a lived experience of disabilities.