Implementation of the Right to Inclusive Higher Education in Ethiopia: the Case of University Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Background: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) guarantees its subjects the right to inclusive education. The Convention obliges its member states to enact efficient domestic laws and establish institutional frameworks that protect, promote and ensure this right, as countries cannot discharge their responsibilities without the domestication and practical application of the rules recognized in the Convention. Objective: The study aims to assess the existence and efficiency of Ethiopian national laws and institutional frameworks to implement the right to inclusive higher education in line with the human rights approach enshrined in the CRPD. An emphasis on the case of university students with visual disabilities has been made. Method: In addition to the doctrinal analysis of the rules and principles enshrined in the CRPD and Ethiopian laws governing the right to inclusive education, the study examines the practical implementation of this right in universities using a deductive qualitative research method. The latter method studied the perspectives and lived experiences of university students with visual disabilities in Ethiopia. Conclusion: The study established that the existing Ethiopian legal and institutional frameworks are inadequate to fully ensure the right to inclusive education of university students with visual disabilities. Specifically, the laws are insufficient to guarantee the provision of reasonable accommodations and to ensure the accessibility of educational services. As no awareness creation programs or training are required by law, the attitudes of the university staff and students toward learners with disabilities are discriminatory and restraining. Institutional frameworks established at federal, provincial, and university levels are incompetent in implementing the rules and remedying transgressions committed against these individuals. The research thus recommends that the Ethiopian government enact new laws, modify existing ones, and establish effective institutional mechanisms to fully ensure the right to inclusive higher education of its citizens with visual disabilities.