This chapter presents physical barriers, lack of adequate funding, poor supervision, delay in feedback, communication difficulties, negative attitudes, and impairment-related disadvantages as the unique challenges confronted by students with disabilities when doing research in higher education in South Africa. Data were collected through scanning South African and international literature available on Google scholar, ProQuest, in books, journal articles, and online resources. Informed by decolonial theory, the invisible underlying causes of the challenges are discussed. Suitable assistive devices, listening to students with disabilities' voices, and more time allocation are suggested as strategies that could improve research engagement for students with disabilities.
TopIntroduction
Both the academic staff and students have to engage in research because it is one of the ways through which knowledge is produced and disseminated. Students with disabilities are not exceptional in engaging in research as a component of the programmes of their study. When they graduate from institutions of higher education, graduates with disabilities who enter into academia as faculty members, have an obligatory requirement to engage in research and publish their work. However, limitations such as physical barriers, lack of adequate funding, poor supervision and impairment-related disadvantages are confronted by students with disabilities, in the South African context of higher education. This chapter uses decolonial theory to analyse the challenges confronted by students with disabilities in research engagement. The argument for the chapter is that while students with disabilities are required to engage in research as all other students, they confront unique obstacles, which limit their effectiveness in research engagement. The chapter suggests relevant assistive devices, listening to students with disabilities’ voice and more time allocation, as strategies that could improve students with disabilities’ engagement in research in the South African higher education. The chapter seeks to contribute to the contemporary debates on engagement in research, by all diverse students in higher education globally, and in South African context specifically.
Research has been conducted on challenges confronted by students in contexts of higher education in Africa. Among other many studies, Atibuni, et. al (2017) explored challenges and strategies in conducting research by Master of Education students in Uganda. This chapter comes from a unique perspective of focusing on challenges for students with disabilities specifically, which are different from those confronted by other students without disabilities. Accurate statistics of graduate students with disabilities in South Africa is difficult ascertain because some of them do not disclose their disabilities in institutions of higher education. Literature however reveals that they take longer than other students without disabilities, to complete their programmes of study, which research is part of (Ndlovu, 2017).
Given the focus of this chapter, it is important to start by providing the context in which research in higher education in South Africa takes place. This will provide the picture of students with disabilities’ engagement in research in the particular context. The chapter goes on to discuss the decolonial theory which is important for understanding the invisible causes of challenges confronted by students with disabilities. The challenges as illuminated by the theory are presented and intersectionality is discussed, to make an understanding that challenges confronted by students with disabilities in doing research cannot be over-generalised to all of them, as they are not homogeneous. Lastly, suggested strategies to improve research for students with disabilities are provided.