Educational Experience of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education Institutions in Ethiopia
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Date
2019-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study examined the experiences of students with disabilities in selected public higher education institutions of Ethiopia. More specifically, the aim of the study was to investigate the experiences of the students in the academic, social, physical and policy environments of higher education. To achieve its objectives, a sequential explanatory mixed method design was used. In the first phase, quantitative data were obtained using self-administered questionnaire from 231 randomly selected sample participants. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment correlation and MANOVA were employed as methods of data analysis. In the second phase, qualitative data were generated using face-to-face interview with purposefully selected sample of 18 students with disabilities and 3 key informants and analyzed thematically with the aim to explain the quantitative findings. In general, the results of the study revealed that the overall experiences of participants in the four dimensions of higher education environments were undesirable. This undesirable experiences tended to result from absence, inadequate and delay in receiving support, teaching learning and assessment practices that did not respond to the needs of students with disabilities. Inaccessible physical environment, absence of disability related inclusive policy at institutional level was additional barriers to the educational environment. Moreover, the underlying negative attitude of faculty, administrative staff and students without disabilities were perceived as a major factor for the undesirable experiences. The finding of this study also showed that there was a statistically significant positive correlation among the four dimensions of higher education environments. Regarding the relationship between the four experience dimensions and background variables, the MANOVA result showed that there were statistical significant mean score differences between groups of university on the combined experience dimensions. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant mean score difference among groups of year level on the four experience dimensions. There were statistically significant mean score difference between male and female participants on academic experience dimension and among groups of disability types on the physical environment experience dimension. Finally, this study recommended the development of disability policy at institutional level and transformation of cultures and practices embedded within the social model of disability.
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Education