“I am not special, Let me live normal”: ‘Differently abled’ voice from higher education institutes of India

Despite highlighting the fact that the voice of disabled students in higher education has been considered as the best way to understand their needs, it remains as an inadequately heard one in the developing economies. In order to address this gap, we study the challenges and opportunities of students of higher education in India. We explored the lived experiences of a total of 11 differently abled students, pursuing higher education in India, using phenomenological methodology. Participants of the study have undergone semi-structured interviews to get a deep understanding about their needs in the institutional context, motivation to pursue higher education, problems they face to grow in academics, perceived restrictions in their career ahead, challenges and opportunities they have to deal with in grabbing their dreams, etc. We conducted a progressive analysis of the data using a system of coding and categorization. The results also describe differently abled students’ understanding about their teachers’ and classmates’ approach towards them. The study brings in both theoretical as well as policy implications. Whereas identification of themes like perceived fear for career growth would add value to the literature in building up novel theoretical frameworks, themes like teaching pedagogy could be addressed by the policy makers to better the present scenario of higher education through more inclusiveness.