Access of Students with Disabilities (SWDs) to Higher Education in India with Special Reference to Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the access to higher education for students with disabilities (SWDs) and identify the factors affecting their access and academic performance with special reference to Panjab University (PU). The statistical analysis was carried out using measures of central tendency (mean and median) and measures of dispersion (standard deviation), Kruskal–Wallis test (for more than two groups). Nonparametric Spearman’s rho correlations were used for the relationship. Growth rate was calculated with the log-lin and lin-log regression models. All statistical tests were seen at a two-tailed level of significance (p ≤ 0.01 and p ≤ 0.05). The study highlighted that students in higher education were heterogeneous on many accounts including on the basis of abilities. The enrolment rate of SWDs is increasing at 5.89%. However, access to SWDs is abysmally low (2%) in India against the norms of 5% reservation. The analysis of data revealed that not only were SWDs facing barriers such as physical infrastructure, academic and financial, but they were also prone to the indifferent behaviour of teachers and fellow students in a few instances. With a view to improve the access and academic performance of SWDs, speedy implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016, introducing infrastructure accessibility as a parameter to rank universities in the national ranking survey and providing accessible academic resources are the need of the hour.