Hard questions on how learners with disabilities access higher education

 By Elizabeth Ombati and Mildred Omino

Alphine Chepkorir is a girl with a disability from West Pokot whose story recently featured on Citizen TV about being denied a chance to join a private university she had been placed in. Alphine Chepkorir amekosa kujiunga na chuo kikuu kwa kuwa mlemavu

One of the key reasons she could not join the university is its inaccessibility for Alphine as a girl with a physical disability. As would be expected, there have been different reactions to the situation, with concerned citizens offering to give a helping hand. There have been suggestions to move Alphine to a more accessible institution of higher learning. 

These are all good intentions. We however write this piece to reiterate that good intentions must accompany system changes, if at all we are concerned about how our diversity of learners, including those with disabilities, access quality inclusive education. One thing at the back of our mind is, what happens to thousands of learners with disabilities who do not get a chance at media to highlight their plight? What do we see as gaps from Alphine’s experience that can be addressed to make it easier for thousands of other learners with disabilities transitioning to join institutions of higher learning.

Many present-day disability activists know about Joytown schools in Thika (both primary and secondary) that many years served learners with physical disabilities. We have slowly moved from segregated education where many learners with disabilities studied in designated (special) schools. The downside of this history is that many mainstream schools did not prepare for children with disabilities. They did not make , and still do not make their spaces accessible for the diversity of disabilities, including those with physical disabilities like Alphine.

This goes all the way to institutions of higher learning. In Kenya, there is common knowledge of specific public universities where learners with disabilities are often encouraged to go. It is also common knowledge that many learners with disabilities are often persuaded to study some designate courses. This should not be the norm. When Alphine was placed in a university, the bare minimum we would expect is that such an institution would welcome her, as a learner, let alone a learner with a disability.

We had learners with disabilities in the late 1990s who qualified for example to join national schools such as Alliance High school but who were dissuaded from going there because of the same problems of inaccessibility. Anthony Muriithi is a disability inclusion champion commonly known as Mc on Wheels (https://www.mconwheels.com/) who has told his story joining Alliance High School in the 90s and the struggles he faced navigating a highly inaccessible environment.  He remembered going through episodes of depression brought about by feelings of ‘aloneness’. Three decades later, learners with disabilities are still trapped in the same situation despite development of robust policies on education on accessibility!

Coming back to Alphine. From a largely rural county, from a family of humble means, and with a dream at an education. She performs well and is among 10 out of 60 students in her school who get a mark that qualifies her to join university. And at that point, society reminding her, as it has done many times, that it is not made for her.

What are these questions therefore we need to be asking, for people like Anthony who had to navigate huge challenges to get an education, to someone like Alphine who is starting out in a society that is reminding her that unlike her peers, she must struggle a little bit more, and even after struggle, she is not exactly guaranteed a chance at success. Statistics are stark. The underrepresentation of women with disabilities in many domains including in education, employment, technology and innovation.

With laws governing accessibility of buildings serving the public, why is it that we still as a community rely only on one public university when it comes to access to an education for learners with disabilities, when we know that laws demand that each service offered to the public must be accessible to all without discrimination? In a country with over thirty public universities and a world that terms education as an equalizer, it begs the question of the place of learners with disabilities in the equation.

Why is it that Alphine was not considered in band one under the Higher Education Fund model considering that she is from an extremely needy background? How many school principals are like Alphine’s school principal who sought the media to highlight Alphine’s story because she knew that without fighting extra hard for Alphine, her dreams would never come to pass?

Which systemic barriers in accessing education for all learners with disabilities in Kenya must be dismantled so that we don’t have millions of learners with disabilities pushed out of the system because of no fault of their own, but because as a society we want to normalise disability-based discrimination?

Unless as a society we ask ourselves the hard questions, even in the face of global campaigns on education equity, laws and policies that govern inclusive education; even in the face of good intentions, we shall miss the mark. And we shall keep leaving learners with disabilities behind.