The Access of the Student With Visual Impairment to Higher Education: Microdata Analysis of the National High School Examination

Abstract

The Brazilian National High School Examination (called ENEM) is the main instrument of access to Brazilian Higher Education, and its results are also used by public policies for state-subsidized places. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the access to Higher Education of people with visual impairments (PwVi), to investigate factors related to academic performance in the ENEM large-scale assessment, through the analysis of microdata from the 2017 and 2018 editions. Based on the exploratory research methodology, with a quantitative approach, this study investigated the participation, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and the performance of PwVi in the exam compared to participants without disabilities, to identify vulnerabilities in the access of the PwVi to Higher Education. The results showed the low participation of PwVi in the exam, in addition to the fact that they have lower family income, older age, less female participation, and less concentration in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil to participants without disabilities. The performance analysis points out that the PwVi had similar results to people without disabilities, thus demystifying the concept of incapacity related to people with disability. However, the results varied according to the severity of the disability, signaling possible accessibility issues in the exam, thus jeopardizing participants with more severe visual impairment. It was concluded that the education policies of access to Higher Education, which use the ENEM score, do not apply to part of this population, excluded from the benefits of Higher Education subsidized by the State.