Access to Higher Education in Ghana: Examining Experiences through the Lens of Students with Mobility Disabilities

ABSTRACT

This article examines the experiences of students with mobility disabilities accessing higher education institutions in the Accra metropolis of Ghana. To capture the accessibility issues that people with disabilities encounter in their daily lives as postsecondary students first hand, this study used PhotoVoice methodology, which uses a combination of photographs and corresponding narrations. Themes identified in the photographs and narrations highlight the emotional and academic impact of participant encounters with an inaccessible postsecondary environment. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Ghana
• higher education
• inclusive education
• mobility disability
• physical access
• students with disabilities
• tertiary education
• university

Disclosure statement

The authors report no financial or other conflicts of interest.

Notes

1. Ghana ratified the UN CRPD and its optional protocol in 2012 and launched a national Inclusive Education Policy in 2016.

2. Tertiary education is defined in the Inclusive Education Policy as any public university, polytechnic, college of education, or public institution operating under the auspices of the national tertiary education supervisory bodies (Ministry of Education, 2016).

3. While some may consider hunchback to be a derogatory term, Felix self-identifies with this disability category, so the term is used herein.

4. Note that Evans took a total of 80 photographs and Felix a total of 68 photographs, however many of these photographs were duplicates because participants were trained to take multiple photos to capture the best shot. Each encounter was counted as a captioned narrative with multiple (approximately 3–6) corresponding photographs.

Additional information

Funding

The findings reported here are based on research conducted as part of the University of Ghana Building a New Generation of Academics in Africa (BANGA-Africa) project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.