Perceptions of Academic Staff towards Accommodating Students with Disabilities in a Civil Engineering Undergraduate Program in a University in South Africa.

This study explored the perceptions of academic staff towards admission of students with disabilities, and their accommodation once accepted into an undergraduate Civil Engineering program in a South African university. Qualitative responses relating to the perceptions of five academic staff were obtained through semi-structured interviews. The academic staff had limited interactions with persons with disabilities prior to the study. They were also uninformed about disability issues. However they were willing to admit and accommodate students with disabilities in the undergraduate Civil Engineering program. The perceived attitudes of the academic staff towards people with disabilities, and their knowledge and awareness about disability issues may negatively impact the accommodation of students with disabilities in the program. In 1997, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported the outcome of a survey that gathered information on students with disabilities in 24 universities in 11 Englishspeaking African countries, including South Africa (UNESCO, 1997). The survey was carried out to assist universities in Africa to develop policies and practices regarding the needs of students with disabilities, as well as strengthening cooperation between universities in the field of disability. The survey was based on the principles of United Nations Standard Rules of Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities (Hendriks, 1995). The questionnaire for the survey was completed by the key person responsible for students with disabilities in each participating university. The survey revealed that a majority of students with disabilities in participating universities had physical or visual impairments, but only few of the universities had written policies regarding how to address the needs of such students. Some of the universities did not encourage students with disabilities to register for certain courses which required a lot of field work. Participating universities considered accessibility as the biggest problem in accommodating students with disabilities, and tended to solve problems whenever they arose. The report therefore recommended the need to be pro-active in ensuring that a supportive environment is created before students with disabilities are recruited into academic programs. Similar recommendation was later made by Rao (2004) after research reported that the attitudes among students and academic staff towards persons with disabilities were part of the inhibitory factors to accommodating students with disabilities in tertiary education. Unfortunately, the attitudes of academic staff in higher institutions towards students with disabilities was least researched. Therefore, Rao (2004) specifically advocated for qualitative studies to find out the perceptions of academic staff regarding teaching students with disabilities that may involve making accommodations. For students with disabilities, participation in higher education is a matter of equal opportunity and empowerment (Fuller, Bradley, & Healey, 2004). Globally, there are reports of marginal increases in the proportion of such students in higher education, ranging from 0.09% of students in higher education in Tanzania to 11.7% in Austria (Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, 2009; Fuller et al., 2004; Goode, Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 24(1) 54 2007; Hadjikakou & Hartas, 2008; Shevlin, Kenny, & Mcneela, 2004; Tinklin, Riddell, & Wilson, 2004). Literature on admission of students with disabilities in higher education focused on physical barriers to access, problems in accessing curricula, and negative attitudes towards the students, among others (Opie & Taylor, 2008). The literature also highlighted factors that influenced the attitudes of academics towards students with disabilities, namely previous contacts and interactions with persons with disabilities, knowledge about disability issues, and willingness to accommodate the students, among other factors (Dupoux, Wolman, & Estrada, 2005; Konur, 2006; Rao, 2004), However, the development of public policies regarding the direct access to higher education by students with disabilities has been a major driving force for increased participation (Konur, 2006). The institutions of higher education provide various forms of support to accommodate students with disabilities, the most common forms being extended time for examination or alternative test formats, course substitutions or waivers, and assistive devices including audio tapes (Quick, Lehmann, & Deniston, 2003). It has been argued that a global perspective on disability issues is needed to avoid assuming that developments in one country are the norm (Dupoux et al., 2005). While most industrialised nations like the USA have developed systematic measures to deal with access to higher education by students with disabilities (Dupoux et al., 2005; Vogel, Leyser, Burgstahler, Sligar, & Zecker, 2006), emerging nations like South Africa, South Korea, and Haiti are still in the process of articulating and implementing policies that guarantee the accommodation of students with disabilities in higher education (Dupoux et al., 2005; Kwon, 2005; Losinsky, Levi, Saffey, & Jelsma, 2003). A cross-cultural study across four continents on the attitudes of teachers toward integration of students with disabilities revealed that teachers in Germany and the United States had more positive attitudes than those in Ghana, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Israel (Dupoux et al., 2005). A survey of three higher education institutions in South Africa revealed that only 0.4% of the students’ population reported having any form of disability (Crous, 2004), compared to about 10% or more in the more industrialized nations like the USA, UK and Germany (Fuller et al., 2004). The setting where the current study was carried out was one of the 7 universities in South Africa which participated in the survey conducted by UNESCO (1997). The UNESCO survey revealed that there were only 30 students with disabilities out of about 10,500 students in the university (0.3%) at the time of the survey. These students were enrolled in law, arts, commercial studies, social work and administration. At the same time, the university was also working on a policy document on how to accommodate students with disabilities. However, by 2004, the university had committed itself to making tertiary education and the working environment accessible and inclusive of all students and staff, including those with disabilities (University of Kwazulu Natal [UKZN], 2004). The number of students with disabilities in the university has also increased to approximately 200 out of a student population of 36 805 in 2009 (0.5%). Units to provide academic and non-academic assistance to students with disabilities, named Disability Units, have been established on the five campuses of the university. Support services available to the students included continuous liaison with the academic departments where the students are registered, counselling, obtaining permission for extended time adjustment during exams, and providing audio tape facilities for lectures. In addition, a 5-day course on Disability Studies was offered in 2008 with a view to introducing it as part of the induction program for new university staff in order to raise awareness about disability. In spite of the achievements in the particular university, the first author (NM), who was a staff of the Disability Unit at the time of this study, observed that students with disabilities were still under-represented in the Faculties of Science and Engineering because of a misconception among the academic staff that students with disabilities could not fulfil all the criteria required to complete the academic programs. Therefore, this study was initiated to explore the perceptions of academics towards accommodating students with disabilities who may be admitted into the undergraduate Civil Engineering program in the university. Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and natural built environment, including bridges, roads, canals, dams, and buildings. The university offers a 4-year undergraduate program in civil engineering, comprising courses such as structures, steel and concrete materials, geotechnics, surveying, hydraulics, water supply and waste water treatment, and transportation. The program is fully accredited by the Engineering Council of South Africa (UKZN, 2004). Mayat & Amosun; Accommodating Students with Disabilities 55