Universities should include students with invisible disabilities

Inclusive education has been a buzzword in multiple international contexts. The Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education; Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education; as well as the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have all helped to place the focus on persons with disabilities.

In Tanzania for instance, the Disabilities Act of 2010 protects persons with disabilities from discrimination, but it does not guide how to compel educational institutions to implement accommodations for invisible disabilities. Accommodations in this context are individualised adjustments designed to prevent discrimination within an environment.

This article focuses on invisible disabilities that include conditions such as autoimmune disorders and other chronic illnesses, neurodivergence, and visual and auditory disabilities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 15% of persons who are classified as having a disability, have invisible disabilities.

Invisible disabilities often overlooked

When we think of disability, we may see people in wheelchairs and with white canes in our mind’s eye. However, there are some types of disabilities that accessible stairs, Braille and designated parking slots do not address.

These are invisible disabilities such as some visual impairments or restricted vision, autism spectrum disorder, including high-functioning autism, which is commonly known as Asperger’s syndrome, mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia. In most cases, invisible disorders are often overlooked.

Despite an increase in the proportion of students with disabilities admitted to higher education institutions worldwide, quality higher education institutions do not seem prepared.

Obstacles to inclusion have been identified worldwide, including issues such as faculty unpreparedness and a lack of training and skills in dealing with diversity, inflexibility in teaching methods, a lack of teaching and learning resources, unconducive learning environments, and inappropriate assessment processes.

Invisible disabilities come with hidden difficulties and hidden costs or expenditures. In developed economies, such as Australia, appropriate tools such as assistive technologies support and assistance animals mitigate difficult situations.

However, in developing countries, there is a lack of assistive technologies or animals, hence students with disabilities are denied access to quality higher education environment rights.

Fear of disclosure

Learning activities such as written assignments, class tests and examinations can take longer and be more frustrating to complete, which requires more management and adds to exhaustion.

People with invisible disabilities commonly lie or stay silent about their disability because they fear stigma or are unsure of the repercussions of disclosing their disability status, also to university administrators or lecturers.

Disclosing a disability often leads to memorising trauma, providing long explanations of what led to the disability he or she has, and uncomfortably, intrusive questions. Even worse is the possibility of other people connecting a disability with witchcraft or a curse and offering advice on diagnosis or treatment to witch doctors or spiritual or religious leaders. These challenges can have a significant impact on the learning environment for students in a university setting.

Students with invisible disabilities may be less likely to ask to be accommodated or may be afraid to disclose their disability.

They may be concerned that their request will be turned down, feel their accommodation requirements or disability might not be taken seriously, fear they might be accused of faking for favour, including deadline extension in submitting assignments or extra time during the examination. They might also worry that fellow students make assumptions that they are abusing the system.

Hence, those students with invisible disability mostly struggle in silence. They may feel guilty that they need time off school for an upcoming doctor’s appointment or surgeries, may be stressed and depressed while waiting for a diagnosis, or worried about how they can pay medical bills.

Create a conducive learning environment

Just because we cannot see something does not mean that it does not exist. Hence, it is important to create a conducive learning environment for students with invisible disabilities such as those who have low vision or blindness or have limited range of motion. Rather than only following the legal guidelines, accommodations often need to be specifically tailored to an individual.

Many people with invisible disabilities may have been diagnosed later in life. These students may have additional challenges navigating complicated accommodation request processes and dealing with the diagnosis.

When a university requires a lengthy, complex approval process or requires the student to create an accommodation plan, this places a heavy responsibility on someone who is already overwhelmed. The following two examples of invisible disabilities illustrate the impact that an invisible disability may have on an individual’s student learning journey.

First, print disability is a condition where a person is unable to read standard print due to a vision, perceptual, physical, developmental, or learning disability. For a person with print disability to be able to read hard copy or online material, he or she should use alternative access methods or assistive technology such as Braille, large-format print, audio formats, adapted reading displays, or a combination of multiple formats.

However, most universities across Sub-Saharan Africa lack accessible course materials and contribute to students with print disability lagging.

Secondly, hard of hearing (HoH) persons are on the deaf spectrum, ranging from mildly hard of hearing to profoundly deaf. The profoundly deaf, just like wheelchair users, have visual cues to disclose their disability, such as the use of an interpreter or using American Sign Language, or ASL. The hard of hearing rarely have those cues.

Navigating uncomfortable situations

Hearing aids can easily be overlooked if they are small or covered by a person’s hair or a headscarf, and people frequently do not believe that someone who speaks well is deaf.

It is very difficult for the student who is HoH to join group discussion, especially if they must ask other group members to repeat themselves. This tends to throw the flow of conversation off, and it can be confusing for other students.

Depending on how accommodating a university is, tasks that are considered basic or simple may have to be done differently. University management, lecturer, or fellow students may react to that need unfavourably, or may ask uncomfortable or invasive questions, which has an impact on both the individual students and the university.

This can lead to people with invisible disabilities feeling very isolated. If a student does not want to disclose a disability, hiding it can be difficult. If a person does disclose their disability, they may need to do it repeatedly, which is demoralising and dehumanising.

Stigma leads to non-disclosure

While the 2010 Disability Act is landmark legislation that set the foundation for accessibility, it is not an impenetrable shield. The act does not provide blanket protection or blanket accommodation in every learning aspect. For example, distance and online learning students were sidelined.

Requesting any sort of accommodation is highly personal and can be difficult to implement. Though there are remarkable improvements in terms of how the community is erasing stigmas attached to many disabilities, individuals continue to face challenges in disclosing their disabilities, and in continually justifying their accommodation needs.

Stigma can lead to individuals not disclosing symptoms or not seeking help for fear of repercussions. Attitudes toward disabled students can inform how other fellow students interact with a student with a disability which can prevent academic success.

Depending on the accommodations a student needs, there is a real fear of being denied admission due to being a ‘burden’ to the university or requiring accommodations that can be costly. This is especially true for public universities that typically rely on government funding which is, most often, not enough.

This can be compounded if the student does not have an official diagnosis, or the disability is undocumented. Since diagnosis and documentation require time away from school, the student might feel guilty about missing classes, even if they have permission.

Accommodations should be commonplace

Attitudinal and physical barriers can be more detrimental than the disability itself. For example, while it is difficult to question a measurable disability (such as vision), mental disabilities can be particularly difficult to quantify, and universities and fellow students may question whether the disability is real.

Handling accommodations can be confusing for everyone involved. For many educational institutions, the accommodation process is ill-defined or non-existent. While accommodations may be approved, securing accommodations can require a negotiation between the student with a disability and the university official. Therefore, accommodations need to be considered commonplace for every education level, right from pre-primary to university level.

For many students with a disability, the process of asking for accommodations can be so intimidating or overwhelming, they may avoid it. One way for universities to consider making the accommodations process easier would be to shift the accommodation responsibility to university staff (both academic and administrative), making basic accommodations a part of job descriptions.

Take-aways for university staff

First and foremost, university staff should be at the forefront by modelling expected behaviour and creating a conducive learning environment on campus and online that is inclusive by default.

Universities should reflect inclusiveness with staff and stand up for students with disabilities in any discriminatory situation, or in any situation in which inappropriate language is used.

University staff assist students with invisible disabilities by supporting them within the structure of the universities. Students are more likely to disclose disabilities and ask for accommodations when they expect to be accepted and perceive positive attitudes toward university and staff support. In such environments, students with disabilities will have higher satisfaction, and higher retaining and graduation rates.

Normalise accommodations

It is critical to create an inclusive environment for students with invisible disabilities. Universities need to go beyond considering only visible disability at the expense of invisible disability and accommodate all students, regardless of the level of disability.

The best way to achieve inclusivity is to encourage all university staff to model the behaviour they want to see in others and to normalise disabilities and accommodations.

In an environment where accommodations for everyone are normalised, many of the challenges may be eradicated from universities as it can help remove the stigma surrounding disability. Every student wants to study in a supportive, conducive learning environment where they feel respected and accommodated.

Simon Ngalomba is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Higher Education and Human Development Research Group, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He can be reached at simonngalomba@yahoo.com.