Revisiting accessibility from the perspective of the social model of disability: students’ experiences in higher education

Abstract

At the beginning of this century, accessibility has become a legislative determination that seeks to eliminate barriers in different social spaces for people with disabilities and reduced mobility. In higher education, accessibility is an essential condition for the student with disabilities joining, staying and participating in academic activities. This article aims to analyze the accessibility in the experience of students with disabilities in higher education. For this, we use the methodology of case studies with the shadowing technique, observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate the study unit: accessibility experience of six students with disabilities, being three women and three men. The main research findings indicate that accessibility is not yet applied as a right but as individual assistance and, precisely because of this, in higher education the adaptation of students with disabilities often happens without the modification of the institutional structure. This is a consequence of the medical and pathological view of these students, who are not perceived as individuals with rights.