Investigating the influence of morality on higher education students’ inclusive support for visually impaired students

Inclusive education has always been a major priority for concerned educational stakeholders in Ghana; yet, students with visual impairment struggle to have equitable access to education, a situation usually attributed to institutional deficiencies and unfavourable attitudes among students and stakeholders. Drawing on the Moral Sentiment Theory we hypothesise in the current study that the supportive behaviours among students towards vulnerable peers may be strongly contingent on their moral orientations. Through a census survey, the current study gathered data from 193 religious and moral education students to understand whether there is a theoretical and empirical connection between students’ sense of morality and their inclusive support behaviours towards students with visual impairment. Using partial least squares structural equation modelling, the study revealed that higher education students’ morality strongly predicted their provision of academic, attitudinal, emotional, and social inclusion support for their peers with visual impairment. This novel findings contributes to addressing existing gap on how moral values influences individuals’ tendency to support people with disabilities in Ghana. This statistical insight makes it imperative for concerned policymakers and educational stakeholders to prioritise the integration of moral and ethical development programs into higher education curricula and the implementation of sensitisation campaigns to ensure an effective implementation of inclusive educational policies in Ghana.