Higher Education

International News

Chemistry is Inaccessible: How to Reduce Barriers for Disabled Scientists (2023, Educating All Learners)

Ableism in the academy “Disabled scholars say they often rely on ad hoc agreements to get the accommodations they need to do their jobs. The lack of formal recognition has left many feeling unprotected and unwelcome in the academic workplace.” (2023, UA/AU)

Moving labs: a checklist for researchers with disabilities. (2022, Nature Careers)

A discussion forum on quality higher education for persons with disabilities in low and middle income countries. (2022, CIP)

A review of the anthology Improving Accessible Digital Practices in Higher Education (2022, Disability Studies Community)

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Nigeria

The importance of inclusive rhetoric interview with Sunday A. Adegbenro, whose work explores what universities and other institutions can do to implement inclusive practices. (Jul, Vanguard)

UK to award Chevening scholarships to PWDs in Nigeria (2023, The Cable)

On Institutional Cultures: How Inclusive are Nigerian Universities? (2023, BONews)

Disability exclusion in Nigeria’s Students Loans Act (2023, Nigerian Tribune)

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South Africa

The subjective experiences of students with invisible disabilities at a historically disadvantaged university. (2022, African Journal on Disability)

3 ways in which universities can be more inclusive to disabled individuals during an emergency. (2022)

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Bangladesh

A shot in the dark: The state of higher education for persons with disabilities (2023, TBS)

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Bhutan

Understanding Inclusion and Accessibility in Higher Education: A Case Study from Bhutan. (2023, Fora Education)

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India

Status of higher education of students with disabilities. End-line report. (Link to pdf, Apr, NCPEDP)

Why Disabled Students Want JNU To Walk The Talk. “If I filmed a wheelchair-view video of the Jawaharl Nehru University campus, it would depict a nightmare of inclusivity, quite ironic given JNU's progressive reputation”. (2023, Times of India)

Inclusion should be a matter of policy Because people with disabilities should not be dependent on the kindness of others even for basic needs. An essay on adaptations needed in law school. (2023, The Hindu)

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Indonesia

What can universities do to attract and support students with disabilities? (2023, Times Higher Education)

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Palestine

Accessible and Inclusive Higher Education for Palestinian Students with Disability: Policies and Practices Review:

“The results showed absence of factual information about Palestinian students with disabilities, lack of support to adopting in IHE in almost all existing policies and strategic goals, a mixture of practices facilitating and hindering implementation of core elements of IHE, and experience-based policies and practices proposed by the participants to make higher education more accessible and inclusive.” (2023, Apollo)

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Ireland

Graduates with disabilities are less likely to be employed – and are paid less. (2023, Independent.ie)

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United Kingdom

Developing neurodiversity-affirmative PhD supervision (Jul, Supervising PhDs)

Higher education was easily accessible to disabled people during Covid. Why are we being shut out now? “The pandemic showed that remote learning is effective. It’s absurd that universities are going back to processes that exclude us” (Apr, the Guardian)

Students with physical disabilities explain the challenges they face when they go to university. (Jan, The Conversation)

Disability landscape report highlights barriers still facing disabled chemists (2023, Chemistry World)

Deaf scholar promoted to full professor in deaf studies “Until the appointment of Annelies Kusters, UK had only hearing people as full professors in the field” (2023, the Guardian)

Improving the experience of disabled PhD students in STEM “The researchers found that out of 192 survey participants UK wide, only a third (33%) felt they had received the support they needed to be on an equal footing with their non-disabled peers” (2023, Disabled Students UK)

How to promote disabled women in academia (2023, THE)

What I’ve learned from a decade of working with a disability in academia “climbing the academic ladder in an able-bodied world” (2023, Times Higher Education)

Disabled students are being let down by universities (2022, Metro)

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Dominican Republic

UASD inaugurates centre for inclusion of people with disabilities. (In Spanish, Jan, El Neuvo Diario)

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Mexico

Mexico failed to ensure access to inclusive tertiary education for woman with intellectual disability, UN Committee finds. “This case is not about lowering admission standards but about appropriate modifications and adjustments in assessing applications from people with disabilities during the admission process,” (2023, OHCHR)

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United States

Inaccessible Access Rethinking Disability Inclusion in Academic Knowledge Creation. (Nov, Rutgers University Press)

Crip Spacetime Access, Failure, and Accountability in Academic Life, a book by Margaret Price. (Apr, Duke University Press) See a New Books Network interview, with transcript.

Navigating environmental academia in a disabled body: an embodied autoethnography of ableism and advocacy. (Apr, Disability & Society)

Department of Education Could Improve Information on Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:

“Students with disabilities face several challenges while transitioning to and attending college, according to college disability services staff and students GAO spoke with. For example, some students are unaware of or unprepared for the self-advocacy necessary to request accommodations without help from their parents, who can play a pivotal role in obtaining academic supports in high school. In addition, some students experience reluctance from faculty to provide accommodations. To help mitigate these challenges, college staff reported holding orientation sessions for students on how to request accommodations and training faculty on how to make their courses accessible, among other steps.” (Apr, US Government Accountability Office)

‘A beautiful way of saying a lot’: sign language brings benefits to the organic chemistry classroom. “We’ve created this organic chemistry lexicon with the Deaf community in mind, but we are starting to see its universal design advantages.” (Mar, Nature)

Experiences of faculty and scientists with disabilities at academic institutions

“Faculty with disabilities encounter systematic barriers at academic institutions, and lack of acknowledgement and research on these experiences has held back institutional and policy changes. To reduce disparities for disabled faculty, academic leadership must allocate resources to address ableism, create more inclusive environments, and raise standards beyond ADA compliance.” (Feb, MedRxiv)

Work Will Not Save Us: An Asian American Crip Manifesto (2023, Disability Studies Quarterly) See discussion on the Debrief.

UCLA has a new disability studies major (2023, Los Angeles Times)

STEM PhDs with disabilities are underpaid and underrepresented in U.S. academia, earning “$14,360 less per year in academia than those without disabilities.” (2023, HUB)

At 20, Berkeley's Disability Studies looks ahead “Launched in 2003, Disability Studies, though formally housed in the Division of Undergraduate Studies, is now present in departments across Berkeley, from art practice to linguistics to sociology.” (2023, Berkeley News)

Uncharted: stories about people with disabilities in STEM fields. (2023, The Story Collider)

The Problem With Disabling How colleges—and the law—are impairing student education and resilience through too many accommodations. [This article is shared for information, not because I agree with it.] (2023, Discourse)

Being Black and Disabled in University “Pursuing an education at the intersection of ableism and racism, Black male students with disabilities develop strategies to silence negative cultural narratives.” (2023, JSTOR Daily)

Creating Our Own Lives Young adults with intellectual disability tell the story of their own experience of higher education. (2023, University of Minnesota Press)

College students with disabilities deserve accessible spaces “Student journalists at the University of Maryland spent months scrutinizing their campus and talking to people with disabilities. More college newspapers should.” (2022, Washington Post)

Students push for Persons with Disabilities Cultural Center (2022, Yale News)

‘It’s Backdoor Accessibility’: Disabled Students’ Navigation of University Campus:

“Introducing the concept of ‘backdoor accessibility,’ this paper examines exclusionary practices and systemic ableism to propose that disabled students are routinely offered a lesser quality service that is argued to be ‘better than nothing.’ In order to navigate these barriers, many students reported the additional expenditure of time, resources and energy.” (2022)

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Australia

Students living with a disability are falling behind at university due to lack of accessible, flexible study options. (2023, ABC News)

Barriers facing disabled activism at university: ‘Disability is often relegated to “second-class” status in student activism. More effort, listening and discernment is needed from other activists to build a genuinely inclusive student movement.’ (2022, Honi Soit)

Women with disabilities 'underestimated' as battle for equality in science careers heats up. (2022, ABC News)

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Brazil

Changes and challenges that disabled people bring to educational institutions. Feature exploring increased rates of enrolment but gaps in policies and teaching practices. (In Portuguese, 2023, Pesquisa FAPESP) See reflections on the Debrief.

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Colombia

Hundreds of young people with disabilities are learning at a new university founded by Jeison Aristizábal. (2023)

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