Students with disabilities in higher education institutions in Andhra Pradesh

Introduction

Article 45(a) of the Constitution of India has guaranteed education as a fundamental right for every citizen. For this the government of India has been taking steps for equalization of educational opportunities to its entire people since independence (Das, 2000). In this respect, it is apt to think about students in higher education with special educational needs such as visual, hearing, locomotor and intellectually abled/disabled, who are experiencing difficulties in pursuing higher education. According to the Persons with Disability Act 1995, students with disabilities should have access to education all levels including higher education and it also giving 3% reservation in all higher education institutions in India. And the University Grants Commission has already attempted to facilitate better accessibility in higher education for persons with disabilities to achieve better results by giving special grants. But out 348 universities in India only 54 Universities and colleges were identified by UGC to grant funds for making friendly /accessible environment for differently abled students with in the campus. In India most of the universities are not in a position to take the initiative or responsibility to create friendly environment for students with disabilities, due to their uncertainties like lack co-ordination, awareness about the policies and needs of students with disabilities. As result many of the students with disability are facing lot of problems in receiving higher education. Even though facilities, funds are available but their application is not up to mark.

The below Literature shows that majority of students with disabilities indicated that they had encountered barrier to their education, including lack of understanding and cooperation from administrators, faculty, staff and other students; lack of adaptive aids and other accommodations; and inaccessibility of buildings and grounds

Review of literature

This review attempts to examine the type of research studies done in India and in the west on students with disabilities in higher education, indicate significant trends in this field and point out gaps in research. But unfortunately the researcher couldn’t find more studies from Indian context. So most of the studies reviewed were western. Most of the studies came from America, South Africa, Mexico, and Scotland, Irish, U.K and other European countries. For the review, only those studies have been selected which are wholly or partly concerned with some aspects of the students with disabilities at higher education, issues encountered by SWD within higher education environment, and its impact on their education social and learning experiences. Master’s level and doctoral dissertations has not been considered but only research studies which were published in journals have been reviewed. The review has been limited to the more general aspects of the research studies and only main findings have been included.

National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP, 2004) recently conducted a survey on the education scenario for SWD in India. The research findings present that only 0.1 percent of the total disabled students enrolled in higher education at university level. This indicates the failure of the state to enforce the rules vis-à-vis disabled students. In all the 119 (respondent) universities there were 1,203 students with orthopaedic impairments, 311 students with visual impairments, 38 students with hearing impairment and 22 students with mental disability enrolled. Out of 119 universities seven universities mentioned that they do not admit students with disabilities. Of the 0.1 percent of SWD, about 76.3 percent was males and 23.7 were females. (NCPEDP, 2004 accessed from www.ncpedp.org). Shevlin, Kenny, Mcneela, (2004) study reported that students with disabilities have variable access experiences within higher education and physical access remains a serious obstacle to full participation. Reports from participants indicate that they encountered access difficulties at every level in college life. This research highlights the inherent limitations in the current piecemeal institutional response to provision for students with disabilities. The researchers recommended that a comprehensive access service is required that addresses the needs of all marginalized groups and becomes an integral part of the third level institution.

Similarly, Mohan & Pazhani, (2008) conducted study in India, which aims to explore the some of the processes of becoming and being a disabled student, focusing on the social construction of student identity and the effects of this on the student experience. In relation to the students impairment, negative experiences tended to result from the absence of, or delay in receiving support: for example, some students felt that tutors were not aware of, or not acting on reasonable adjustments, other students reported a delay in funding for identified resources. A particularly notable issue raised was the delay in receiving their Disabled Allowance. Once support was in place, this tended to have a substantial positive impact on their experience of higher education. However, an important issue raised was that it was not always the support itself that was of prime importance.

Similarly, Results indicated that students’ experiences in higher education whether good or bad depend greatly on the awareness and knowledge of staff (Hall, & Tinklin, 1998). Some students reported very positive experiences, where staff had been well-informed it is often because of personal experience or interest in disability matters, rather than because of institutional training or policies. Jacklin, Robinson and Harris’s (2007) study aimed to explore and develop understandings of what might improve the additional and social experience of disabled students within higher education. The majority of the respondents reported that overall their learning and social experiences of higher education were positive. Some respondents (23.4%, 43 students) reported that they were not happy with their learning experiences, others (12.5%, or 24 students) that they were not happy with their social experiences, and a small proportion of the respondents (7.5% or 15 students) were unhappy with both learning and social experiences. The researcher found that the usefulness of the category disabled student seemed to lie partly in the power of the label. It had focused minds of policy makers and brought legislative changes which had opened doors to higher education and brought reasonable adjustments which could be enabling.

Gaps in research

Much of the literature regarding students with disabilities experiences in institutions of higher education focus on students difficulties in accessing information about enrollment in higher education, tensions inherent in teaching and assessment modalities and dimensions of university policy and practices that work against or contribute to student marginalization and discriminatory practices. These studies tend to fix attention on the piecemeal efforts of university’s to provide disability services, equitable treatment, and access to students with disabilities. Much of this literature highlights the problem of services that are individualized as opposed to institutional responses that place the burden on students to disclose their disability status, search out services, inform faculty and staff, and teaching and learning problems and arrange the provision of services. While such studies contribute important insights into areas where university and national policies can strive to improve the treatment of students with disabilities and ensure equal access. Finally, this study suggest that future research studies needs to examine areas which are unexplored in this study. Areas that have remained unexplored are to provide much data on how students navigate, manage, and behave within such environments and the personal assistance needs to be examined empirically. The assessment of students with disabilities and the concept of gender, which are very important areas, have been left almost unexplored. The research on socio-economic background of students with disabilities at higher education has been very limited. Further it fails to specify what are the factors hindering most of the universities to support and accommodate diverse range of students with disabilities and what’s lacking in the existing system.

Of the 32 reviewed articles most of them were western studies. As a researcher I hope that with my study I will fill that gap which found from the above literature and also contribute to the study from Indian context.

Statement of the problem

Although various steps have been taken in order to improve the higher educational opportunities for students with visual impairments, there are very few explicit signs of progress. Not all the institutions have taken the initiative or responsibility to create an enabling environment for these students. The reasons are: lack of coordination within the institution management, inadequate financial support, and ignorance about the policies and needs of students with disabilities. As a result, a large number of students with visual impairments are facing many problems in receiving higher education. In some institutions, though funds are available, the facilities are not up to the mark. (See Ministry of Human Resource Development, Annual Report, 2006-07). According to University Grants Commission (UGC), 6 per cent of youth population is enrolled in Indian universities and colleges. Approximately, based on the most conservative estimate for the disabled youth population in India, at least 3160,000 disabled youth should be in the Indian universities and colleges. However, just 1.2 per cent of the 3.6 lakh disabled youth are in the universities and colleges. It can be concluded that India’s higher educational system is not accessible to 98.8 per cent of its disabled youth.

Objectives of the study

1) To study the universities in Andhra Pradesh with reference to their awareness about policies of students with disabilities & the level of implementation of the UGC schemes for students with disabilities

2) To examine the positive and negative, social and educational experiences of SWDs in higher education’s at university level

3) To study the perceptions of teachers and peers in terms of their awareness of special needs of SWDs and their attitudes towards them.

4) To understand the views of students with disabilities about their relationships with their peers, teachers and university management

5) To draw out the favorable and hindering factors which are influencing the creation of inclusive environment at Higher Education level.

Research questions

1) How far the higher education institutions in Andhra Pradesh are aware of the policies and schemes of Government of India and UGC for students with disabilities?

2) What are the factors hindering most of the universities to support and accommodate diverse range of students with disabilities?

3) What are the factors which promote or hinder the process of social and educational advancement of students with disabilities at Higher Educational level?

Operational definitions (Definition of key terms):

They are as follows

Students with disabilities: Students with disabilities who have an identified disability – whether intellectual, sensory, physical or emotional or some combination of these- that in some way creates a special educational need. That is, the student need resources or support in addition to those provided to typical students of his or her age group to gain access to education.

Higher Education: The term Higher Education has two distinct meanings. They are Firstly; it denotes the stage of education that succeeds secondary education. Secondly, it denotes the system of institution that provides professional courses and also engages in research activities (Magotra, 2007). Higher education includes not only colleges and universities offering professional courses in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, technology, science, music, and art. They also include teacher-training schools, community colleges, and research institutes.

Accessibility: Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e.g, device, service, and environment is available and can be used. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" the functionality, and possible benefit, of some system or entity. Accessibility can specifically focus on people with disabilities and their right of access to entities, often through use of assistive technology. Several definitions of accessibility refer directly to access-based individual rights laws and regulations.

Methodology

Research design:

Research design is a blue print, an outline and a systematic plan prepared for directing a research study. It specifies the research objectives, the methodology, the techniques and the tools to be adopted to achieve the objectives. It is the plan, the structure, and strategy of investigation to obtain the answers of the research questions- the plan is the overall scheme or program of research (Baker, 1994).

The present study is an exploratory study which will employ the qualitative and quantitative approach. Exploratory research is a preliminary study of an unfamiliar problem about which little or no data is available. This research is an initial investigation of an unfamiliar problem for getting some clues for identifying it. The researcher adopted this research design, as he was totally unaware of the problem of students with disabilities in higher education in Andhra Pradesh. The present study is of an exploratory nature. The study attempts to explore students with disabilities perspective of their social and educational experiences, their challenges in undertaking higher education at University level and their perceptions towards their relations with friends, faculty, University management and their support.

Universe and population: All people living in the geographical area of Andhra Pradesh constitute the Universe. All disabled students who enrolled in the academic year between 2008 and 2009 and especially those who are studying at Universities in Andhra Pradesh will constitutes the population of the research.

Research setting: Andhra Pradesh has total number of 35 universities; consisting three central universities and 27 are state universities, and 5 deemed universities. The data will be collected from these thirty five Universities of Andhra Pradesh. University education is a part of higher education. The researcher will be collecting data only from students with disabilities who enrolled in university, those who are studying M.A, M.Phil., & Ph.D. courses.

Sampling method:

For conducting survey, the researcher will use purposive sampling to select the universities. The criteria for selecting the universities will be based on inclusion and exclusion. For example, well established universities which established before the year 2003 will be included and these universities should be offering courses on higher education i.e. MA, MPhil., and PhD. The universities which have not completed a minimum of five years after establishment and which are not offering courses on higher education will be excluded.

For conducting in-depth interview, data will be collected by using stratified sampling in the first phase. In this phase all universities in Andhra Pradesh will be stratified into three classes on the basis of regional disparities and socio-economic conditions. Andhra Pradesh consists of three regions like Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telegana regions. Each region varies from other region socio-economically. The researcher will stratify the universities on the basis of region and hence prepare a list of universities region wise. The researcher will then select one university from each list by using random sampling. The criteria for selecting the university from each region will be based on researcher operational convenience.

In the second phase, after selecting the universities the researcher will collect data from all respondents from each university by using purposive sampling. The criteria for selecting the respondents will be based on inclusion and exclusion. The students, who are suffering with any kind of disability and secondly, respondents those who are studying second academic year or had one/more academic year experience in that university will be included in the study as respondents, while the students without disabilities and students with disabilities who are in first academic year in that university, would be excluded.

Sources of data collection:

This study will be based on both primary and secondary data. In this particular research primary data will be collected from the various stakeholders by using semi-structured in-depth interviews and survey. The secondary sources of data will be books, journals, and other relevant sources like the internet sources.

1. Tools of data collection: For this study data will be collected using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Data will be collected by using survey method and structured in-depth interview method.

Survey method:

The aim of the survey method in this study is to gain an overview of the policies and provisions for support of students with disability and other institutional priorities. Questionnaires will be sent to all the universities registrars with a request that it will be filled by a member of senior management, with assistance from a specialist disability officer, if necessary. This is because the questions do not relate solely to provision for disabled students, but also they relate to broader policy context. This study is also interested in capturing the perspectives of the management on issues of disability.

In-depth interviews:

Data for this study will be collected by using semi-structured in-depth interviews. In-depth interviewing is a technique which enables the researcher to capture the complexity of individual feelings, thoughts and perceptions. Hartman states that exploring respondent’s worlds through in-depth interviews gives voice to their in-depth experiences, providing entry into cultures beyond our own (Thayer, 2001). Data in terms of students social and educational experiences, their entry to higher education, formal teaching and learning and assessment, informal learning, social life and environmental barriers encountered and availability of kinds of support.

Ethical considerations

Non-harmful procedures: Data will be collected through semi-structured in-depth-interview method and which will guide by the conceptual map and discussions with experts. Utmost care will be taken to make the entire process as comfortable as possible for the students with disability.

Informed consent: The students with disability (SWD) will be thoroughly informed of the features (purpose, procedures and need) of the research that may affect his/her willingness to participate in the research. The SWD will be given complete freedom to choose to participate or not as well as to choose to discontinue their participation at any time.

University management: The researcher first will inform to the University management and after taking permission by explaining the importance of study, their contribution, and then only research will start. Since they are also part of this study, their acceptance is very important.

Confidentiality: This will be maintained with utmost care related to sensitive nature of the research setting. The participant’s and University identity will be concealed in all reports and the data gathered will not be used for any other purpose beyond that of the research’s scope.

Data analysis

The aim of analysis in qualitative research is theory building, which involves developing a web of hypothesis that explains the research concern, which is in this case, explains “Students with Disabilities experiences/challenges in receiving higher education at university”. The unit of analysis for the present study is ‘Students with Disabilities’, who experience problems. The data will be collected by using semi-structured in-depth-interviews and survey method. The data will be collected subject to the process of analysis in qualitative research, with primary aim to understand the research concern from students with disabilities perspective. The data analysis will begin by forming themes and organize similar coded themes in theme clusters. Collectively by comparing the common experiences and differences of the individual textual structural description of all co researchers and integrating the experiences of the groups as a whole, the researcher will construct a “composite textual structural description” of the means and essence of participants.

Significance of the Proposed Research

a) Firstly, it is evident that the researcher could hardly find relevant (two) studies from the Indian context. So this study will contribute to the Indian context.

b) Secondly, the present study is an attempt to explore the problem of students with disabilities, their experiences, and also solution to the problem.

c) Thirdly, the researcher aims to provide a framework for policy makers to enabling the students with disabilities to receive a better education by accessing available resources, making friendly environment, etc. to achieve good results at higher education.

d) Finally, the policy makers can use this study to the development of higher education especially at university level and government polices that promote institutional services and accommodations most useful in assisting students with disabilities. Unless disabled people included in mainstream educational policies along with weaker sections of society, India can’t achieve the overall educational development and won’t become as a knowledge society.

Schedule of Proposed Work

|Work |Time (Jan – Mar 2014) |
|Finalizing Data collection tools |15th Feb |
|Data collection |25th Feb |
|Data analysis |5th March |
|1st Draft submission of full report |20th March |
|Final submission |31st March |

In addition, the researcher planning to make a small documentary which will focus mainly on support services provided to students with disabilities in higher educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh.

References

Baker, Therese, (1994), Doing social research, New York, McGrow-Hill, inc.

Das (2007), Declining Standard of University Education in Assam, University News, October 8, PP.11-15, New Delhi

Hall, & Tinklin, (1998), Students First: The Experiences of Disabled Students in Higher Education. SCRE Research report No.85, Edinbargh. http://www.scre.ac.uk.

Jacklin, Robin. C, & Harris. A (2007), Improving the Experiences of Disabled Students in Higher Education, The Higher Education Academy, University of Sussex, 2007

Magotra, (2007), Higher Education in the Context of Globalization, University News, May, 21, PP.7-10, New Delhi

Mohan & Pazhani, (2008) Problems of Higher Education for Disabled students in India, University News, Vol.46, No.44, November 03-09, 2008, New Delhi

NCPEDP survey (2004) www.ncpedp.org

Nunkoosing, John, (1997), Friendships, relationships and the management of rejection and loneliness by people with learning disabilities, Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, sage publications, 1997; 1; 10

Shevlin, Kenny, & Mcneela, (2004). Participation in Higher Education for students with disabilities: An Irish perspective, Disability & Society, 19:1, pp: 15 — 30

Thyer, (2001) Handbook of social work research method”, Sage publications, Thousand Oaks, London