Sign language should be included among the host of spoken languages offered in schools, while universities should employ more disabled people to design inclusive curricula and infrastructure.
These are among the recommendations made by participants, several of them with PhDs and living with disabilities, at a University of Cape Town (UCT)-led symposium on disabled youth transitioning through the education system, writes Chris Bateman for Medical Brief.
The symposium, held last month, followed a three-year of research collaboration between UCT’s Division of Disability Studies, the Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation at Queens University in Kingston, Canada; the University of Gondar in Ethiopia; and Ashesi University in Ghana. The study was funded by the Mastercard Foundation.
The study, conducted with 163 youth (70 female, 93 male) with disabilities (56 physical, 58 visual, 42 hearing and seven ‘others’), found that youth with disabilities experienced discrimination, bullying, stereotyping and low expectations, in their educational journey. Participants expressed a need for physically accessible and safe spaces, accessible information, and accessible forms of communication – and reported insufficient resources for both educational and basic needs. The study found that where emotional, financial, social, and logistic support were provided, participants remained in school and succeeded, many furthering their education all the way up to tertiary education.
However, the opposite was equally true. Students, particularly those with vision and hearing impairments, also linked part of their educational challenges to inadequate training for teachers. Among teachers, the awareness of necessary accommodation and disability inclusive practices in classrooms, critical skills to teach and engage were still largely absent in some instances, the participants complained. They also reported limited access to much-needed resources and technological assistive devices that could aid their learning and academic success.
- These factors combined restrict the subjects that schools were able to offer them, limiting their future university and career opportunities.
- The majority stressed the ‘crucial role’ of personal coping strategies, perseverance, agency, self-advocacy, resilience and self-facilitation in their success and continued education.
- Participation in sports and cultural activities were supportive of the development of self-confidence and personal agency in youth with disabilities, the study found. The involvement in sport also facilitated a sense of inclusion and some felt helped them perform well academically.
- Underlying all findings were experiences of poverty and a need for access to finances.
- Among the findings specific to youth out of school were that they stopped school because they were unable to pay for school related items (e.g. assistive devices), necessary healthcare, or the necessities of living (e.g., food/shelter). All participants shared ‘significant challenges’ when it came to managing health conditions and continuing with their education.
Other factors leading to discontinued education across all contexts were not having or losing key social support networks and relationships, and stigma and discriminatory attitudes beliefs, feelings, and behaviours towards participants. Professor Theresa Lorenzo, UCT’s head of division and programme convener for the disability studies doctoral programme in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, admitted that in spite of the division of disability studies being two decades old, “I’m not sure we’ve been successful in eliminating the barriers to information and communication.”
Her colleague, Sumaya Gabriels, who was a co-investigator said the research involved mostly on-line communication, especially during the COVID years and had been ‘hugely enriching with many lessons learnt from the good work being done.”
“The idea is to prevent youth with disabilities from falling through the cracks on their educational journeys. Of particular concern were those not managing to finish school at any particular level. We should focus on these persons as well and make sure they complete university and find opportunities for work,’ she said.
Judith Mhlangu, who holds a post graduate Diploma in Disability Studies from UCT and works in rural community development said too much emphasis was placed on overseas approaches.
“Some policies are just not appropriate to people at ground level in SA. Poverty in Canada is different to poverty in South Africa. We should have sign language taught in schools as a subject. We have all these languages in SA but no sign language, which is universal,” she exclaimed.
Funders should also hold universities responsible for employing disabled students once they qualified, she added.
Aeysha Toyer, a student who is a wheelchair user and writes her final clinical psychology exams next year said a marriage was needed between diversity and equality.
Fascinated by working with dysfunctional family systems, she observed, “you can’t have equality without equity, and to reach our goals we can’t all take the same route. We need workshops and focus groups. My undergraduate years were at Stellenbosch University and in my first year I missed about a month’s work because I couldn’t access the lecture hall.”
She singled out resilience as the most empowering skill which needed teaching by mental health professionals to people with disabilities.
Bernice Daniels, director for specialised educational sSupport in the Western Cape said a national White Paper published in 2001 had a 20-year trajectory.
“By next year it should be fully implemented, though I will say it has accelerated in the past few years,” she said.
Her province had established multi-disciplinary teams which ranged from low to moderate level support in fully serviced schools to high level support in special schools.
“In South Africa we’ve not yet gone for the full inclusion model like in Canada, because we just don’t have the human resources. We’re not where we’d like to be. There’s no dedicated funding to make mainstream schools inclusive – which is a national government responsibility. A lot more needs to be done, mostly around attitude, stigma, and transitioning,” she said.
A major challenge was the lack of exposure teachers had to disability studies and inclusive education. However, a recent European Union grant, had resulted in three service courses for teachers which would shortly become mandatory country wide.
In the Western Cape in an initial pilot project, one school in each of the 64 education circuits was invited to undergo such training, either online or with outreach teams facilitating.
“We’ll expect these demo schools to support other schools in their circuit. We’re also doing a learner diversity programme, taking a representative from each district, and giving them anti-bias training,” she added.
Any school being built or to be built now in her province had to be designed as wheelchair accessible while two existing schools per circuit per year were being made wheelchair-friendly, totalling 16 schools in the first year.
“We also have learner support teachers in all primary schools, either working full time or working between two schools, with a few high schools as well. We’re lobbying the national department to see how they can come to this party,” she added.
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