Making the “invisible” visible: Inclusive higher education policies for students with disabilities in a developing country context

Abstract

The right to education is reflected in the essential safeguards of 1966 International Covenant on Economic, social , and cultural rights, 1989 convention on the rights of the child as well as emphasized as a tool for individual facilitation in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet, achieving inclusive education seems to be a farfetched concept for many, especially in the developing country context. Access to higher education is one of the essential steps towards ensuring a secured and standard living standard. However, in developing countries, access to higher education is still limited to the privileged sections of the society. Moreso, students with disabilities are rarely found to access higher education which largely limits their possibilities to life. This paper is a qualitative study based on 20 interviews taken both higher education authorities and faculties as well as students with disabilities at the University of Dhaka, which is the largest and oldest public university of Bangladesh. This paper takes a holistic approach to assess the policy and practices of inclusive education at the University of Dhaka. Though an extensive study and analysis, the paper realizes the vitality of a well formulated inclusive education policy and its prompt implementation drawing upon the lived experiences of students with disabilities and analysis of existing policy architecture, the paper concludes that, students with disabilities must be made “visible” to bring about visible changes in the policy and practice in Bangladesh.