NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1461386
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Feb
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-1560
EISSN: EISSN-1573-174X
Available Date: 2024-05-14
From Access to Inclusion: A Call for a Cultural Shift in Higher Education
Lilach Marom1; Jennifer Hardwick2
Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, v89 n2 p513-534 2025
This study explores accessibility barriers in higher education (HE), by centering the voices of 50 disabled students. Drawing on the frameworks of critical disability studies (CDS) and in particular disability justice, we argue that access without belonging is not enough; disabled students need to be fully included in institutional life. Weaving these two frames allows us to simultaneously examine individual experiences and the impacts of systemic ableism within institutions and social structures. From the standpoint that all people have strengths, knowledges, challenges, and barriers and that accessibility and disability are constructed, we examine whose bodies and knowledges are included, whose bodies and knowledges are excluded, and whose bodies and knowledges are dependent on institutional approval and accommodations to be included. We see the participants as knowledge holders, whose experiences give them a perspective that might be hidden from those who design and run HE institutions. This is reflected in the structure of the paper in which, after each section that identifies barriers to access, the participants share their ideas and suggestions. We focus on four main issues of access to (1) receiving and (2) implementing accommodations, (3) physical accommodation, and (4) pedagogy and curricula. This study argues that it is not enough to grant disabled students access to HE by providing limited academic accommodation; rather, it is necessary to listen to disabled students to re-imagine all facets of HE with inclusion in mind.
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link-springer-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Education, Burnaby, Canada; 2Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, Canada