Inclusion education in higher education is relatively new in the United Kingdom. In the last 10 to 15 years’ the government required universities to make “reasonable adjustments” to accommodate students with special needs (Redpath, Kearney, Nicholl, Mulvenna, Wallace, & Martin, 2013). In Northern Ireland, there has been a 16% increase of students with disabilities enrolled into higher education. Since inclusion education is a new concept, many universities may not have an exact protocol for accommodations. The purpose of this study is to explore the obstacles students with special needs endure while enrolled in higher education and identify possible recommendations for accommodations (Redpath et al., 2013).
Method …show more content…
The themes were: physical environment, access to information, admission into higher education and levels of awareness (Redpath et al., 2013). The obstacles students faced in the physical environment were the location of the buildings. It was explained that it is difficult to walk to one part of the campus to the other, and it may be perceived that they are late to class because they are lazy. Accessing information is viewed as difficult because the support that is available is not well advertised. Some students were unaware of the services they could request, which made their time at school frustrating. The participants also explained that admission into a higher education institution was an obstacle because they felt that their choices of universities to attend were limited. The lack of support and the structure of the campus made it hard for students with special needs to decide where to go. In addition, the participants believed if they disclosed their disability on their application the admission board may decline their application because the school may not want to implement or revise their accommodations. Lastly, the participants felt there was a lack of awareness amongst the staff. Some professors were not aware of the accommodations the students needed, which caused issues for the student accessing the information for …show more content…
The participants discussed having a taxi service to transport students from one side of the campus to the other. Also, students could have an assistant to help with carrying books and getting to each class. Another suggestion was that during transition week, there should be a session dedicated to providing information on the support that is available and who to contact if they need help. Lastly, the staff members need to strengthen their line of communication to eliminate any confusion about what the students need to be successful (Redpath et al.,