Given that I took most of International Relations and Law courses in my undergraduate level, 2012 was a huge turning point for me after taking a Qualitative Research module and decided to work on a research project on ‘hegemonic masculinity’, something which I completely had no clue about because I was driven by the curiosity to learn new things. At the end of the day my curiosity payed off because I got a distinction for the module’s long paper and subsequently published a research paper which contributed to original research in 2013 Agenda journal.
This same curiosity to learn new things also influenced the choice of my Masters research topic, which was on ‘conscientious objection and women’s access to contested reproductive services’ which include abortion and morning after pill which I successfully graduated with a distinction. I presented the results of my Master’s research at one national and one international conference both in South Africa. I have also co-authored two academic journal papers that are currently under review.
Having realised that my curiosity encouraged me to work harder and succeed in my academics, I also decided to do my PhD topic in disability an area that is under-researched in many developing countries including South Africa. Other than my curiosity, I also chose to do disability research because of my commitment to social justice. Working within the social justice framework, I believe could help make the current disabling world a better place for people with disabilities (PWDs). By challenging the biased tenets of the medical model of disability which constructs disability as a medical problem which require medical remedies in favour of the radical social model of disability which rather views disability as emanating from negative attitudes that the able-bodied people hold towards PWDs in higher educational institutions (HEIs) and in society in general.
My PhD research topic is: How are South African Universities socially-including students with disabilities? Having conducted a thorough literature review on disability in higher education, I realised that most of the disability research conducted in higher education has and continues to focus only on academic aspects of inclusion of students with disabilities (SWD) and not their social inclusion. Despite recent higher education policy documents recommendations on the need for HEIs to take social inclusions seriously. Because of my curiosity, I felt aspects of social inclusion were equally worth a thorough investigation and that’s why I included as many universities as possible in my sample. Therefore, in mid-2015, through a generous Mellon travel grant I was able to travel to 10 universities across different provinces of South Africa and interviewed 38 DUSMs (Disability unit stuff members) and 5 SWDs ( students with disabilities) whom I was referred to by DUSMs.
Judging from the dominant findings from the interviews, I found that most South African universities have a long way to go as far as the social inclusion of SWDs is concerned. This is because several DUSMs cited several barriers which hinder social inclusion as but not limited to inadequate funding to fund extra-curricular activities for SWDs; criticisms of South African Special Schools for ill-preparing SWDs for the higher education environment; understaff challenges which make DUSMs to focus only on academic aspects of inclusion. In sum, I found that most DUSMs regard social aspects of inclusion as an add on which adds little value not only to SWDs, but also to universities themselves whose missions and visions are mainly to pursue ‘academic excellence’.
Through my travels I was exposed to DUSMs who are also influential in disability issues not only in South Africa, but internationally as well. Some of them hold top positions in Higher and Further Education Disability Services Association (HEDSA) which is an advocacy and rights-based non-profit organisation (NPO) representing the collective voice of disability services in higher and further education institutions in South Africa and its recognised and endorsed by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Other than that, some of them are actually living with a disability as well as 5 students whom I interviewed. Therefore, this also gave me an opportunity to practically engage and work with PWDs for the first time and also hearing their views from their lived experiences point of view. I remember one of my participants I interviewed at one Gauteng based-university had cerebral palsy, and the interview with him lasted for nearly 2 hours because he could not speak fast, but I was humble and patients and that interview was very rich.
One of my Vaal University of Technology participants who is the Director of Social Justice and Transformation, Mr George Mvalo expressed his concerns as follows: One mistake that some postgraduate students doing Master’s or PhD research like you make is that they tend to write their theses for their supervisors and external examiners and fail to disseminate their findings to a greater audience. These words ignited a passion to become interested in sharing my research with the grater audience. In order to put this into practice, drawing on disability inclusion good practices I had learnt from my travels, I started embarking on initiatives of creating greater disability awareness in the Rhodes University community which I found as lagging behind compared to other universities Disability Units’ approaches. My first move was to approach the Manager of the Rhodes Division of Student Affairs towards end of 2015 and requested to be part of the presenters during the 2016 ‘O Week’ Student Leadership Training programme which is compulsory to all residence and Oppidan subwardens, senior students, house committees among other student leaders and I was granted the opportunity. This year’s theme was ‘Valuing and Embracing Diversity’ so I gave a talk in February 2016 entitled: Diversity and the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities at Rhodes University, which was mainly a sensitization session because I felt it’s very important for student leaders to be sensitized around disability issues if they are to work professionally with other students.
In April 2016 I gave a talk titled: Equality and the Inclusion of Staff and Students with Disabilities in South African universities to first year students taking the Puzzles in Contemporary Political Philosophy module, the talk basically focused on disability in higher education in relation to the principle of equality. Given that I’m still in the preliminary phase of my PhD research, so far I have only managed to make one contribution to Rhodes University-based newspaper Oppidan Press. The article drew on my PhD research findings and I titled: When are South African universities going to include students with disabilities? Follow this link: https://oppidanpress.atavist.com/decolonisation. From both the Student Leadership Training and the first years talks which I gave, through the feed-back from attendees I came to the realisation that presenting about disability plays a very important raising awareness role as many attendees admitted that the talks were an important eye opener. Therefore, one important distinguishing factor about giving a disability talk is its important role in raising awareness, therefore, if given an opportunity, I would want to take this at a larger scale and teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the Politics of Disability.
Other than giving sensitisation talks, I am student committee member for the Rhodes University Disability Committee and also a member for the Disability Week Planning Committee where I’m responsible for planning events for the Rhodes Annual Disability Week which will take place from 16-20 May titled: Funding mechanisms to foster inclusion in higher education institutions for students with disabilities: a critical appraisal. I am also a consultant to the Rhodes Office of Equity and Institutional Culture and they have commissioned me to conduct a research on the lived experiences of students and staff with disabilities at Rhodes University.
Within Higher Education Institutional Cultures, Equity and Transformation (HEICET), I’m currently co-supervising an Honours students writing a long paper on ‘deaf students transitioning experiences from deaf schools into South African universities’ which is part of the Qualitative Research module requirements. This is a very importantly relevant research project given the current debates in South Africa about making sign language the 12th official language because of the fact that deaf students fare differently than their hearing peers in accessing information in inclusive educational institutions because of the dearth of professional South African sign language interpreters.
Early this year, Prof Louise Vincent who is my current supervisor and the leader of HEICET won a grant from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Indian Council of Social Research for a project on Higher Education as a ‘Public Good’ – Promoting Inclusion in Higher Education in India and South Africa. This has resulted in Prof Vincent has partnered with Prof from Papia Sengupta of the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi as leaders. It is through these developments that Prof Vincent and I are currently in the preliminary phase of writing a book proposal which will look at disability inclusion in higher education in the global South with specific focus India and South Africa and we will call upon contributors researching on disability from both countries.
Given that I also want to make positive contribution beyond the borders of Rhodes and also become an expert in disability nationally and internationally. On a national level, towards the end of 2015, I contacted the leader of the Disability, Health and Livelihoods programme in connection with my willingness to become a research assistant volunteer and she accepted my request, but because of the distance we often communicate via Skype together with other members. The Disability, Health and Livelihoods falls under Health Economics HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD) is a self-funded organisation based at University of KwaZulu-Natal. In June 2016 I am travelling to Durban for a Disability Networking Zone which will take place in conjunction with the AIDS 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban from 18-22 July 2016. I’m very excited and looking forward to this, not only because I will also present a paper there, but also because I will be able to meet and network with national and international reputable policy makers, lawyers, researchers and disability activists. On an international level, I have sent an abstract for a paper presentation to a Disability Studies Conference at Lancaster University, UK and I’m hoping to go there in September if my abstract gets accepted. My curiosity to take part in this international conference stems from that fact most reputable scholars in Disability Studies are based in the UK and thus would like to meet them in person as they always attend this international conference.
Given that we are living in a world were disability policy and legislations are changing every day because of the influence of marketization among other things, due to the lengthy reviewing process, academic journal articles and books tend to publish issues after a long time it can be difficult for the researcher to keep pace with current developments in disability issues globally. For me however, this is no barrier to my always burning curiosity for the quest to be informed with latest disability news and updates in higher education and other areas. In order to keep myself up to date with disability issues nationally and globally I rely most on online web sites which provide up to date information via informative articles and disability news. Nationally, these include, Centre for Education Policy which provides annual reports on South African education policy, Parliamentary Monitoring Group which provides weekly notifications on all Parliamentary Committee information and Thisability which is the only a disability awareness newspaper inn South Africa. In international context, these include the Disabled World and University World News (Global Edition & African Edition) to which I have also subscribed to their Weekly Newsletters which also keeps me informed with latest disability news and updates in higher education and other areas. Surfing on these websites and also reading widely on disability from various academic sources has broadened the scope of research to other areas which I have recently developed interest in and these include disability in basic education, secondary school and the inclusion of employees with disabilities in the labour market.
My research has influenced my life positively in the sense that it has helped me to think critically out of the box when it comes to disability issues which has enabled me to challenge the myths and prejudices often used by the able-bodied to further justify the marginalisation and discrimination against PWDs. My research has also prepared for future employment if I will work with PWDs given the fact that South Africa’s Employment Equity Act recommends that at least 2% of all employees in companies, and more than 50 workers, should be PWDs. This means that if South African companies were to abide to this obligatory quota rule then chances are high I will definitely work with employees with diverse types of disabilities in one of my future jobs. This won’t be challenge for me at all because my research and volunteering activities with PWDs has prepared me well for working with them in all environments.
In sum, had it not been for my curiosity I would not have reached this far, therefore I will keep nurturing and watering it until I reached my full potential to develop as a researcher and the HEICET does provide such a conducive environment for one and other students. This is because of we have the supervisor who is committed not to compromise the quality of the HEICET’s research outputs despite supervising many students.