National Seminar: Disability and Higher Education
Organized by : Dyal Singh College (University of Delhi), Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003
Funded By Department For Empowerment of Persons With Disabilities

Concept Note
Education plays a significant role in the development and the growth of the society. Its role becomes more
crucial for the marginalized sections especially the Disabled. The primary objective of higher education is to
include all sections of society in the mainstream by recognizing their specificities and removing barriers in the
teaching learning process through ensuring their equal and meaningful participation in the decision making
process.
A cursory look over the situation of Disabled in institutions of Higher education presents a gloomy picture.
Most of the institutions are inaccessible both structurally as well as pedagogically. Whether it is the structure of
buildings, classroom teaching or library facilities, the persons with disabilities are deprived of accessing them
on equal basis with others. The teaching and learning methods also do not recognise disability as one of the
important vantage point of education. The journey of disability as an academics is yet to begin in the
institutions of higher learning.--Disability is yet to find a place in the course curriculum which are offered in
these institutions. The situation in the remote corner of India is more pathetic in this regard. Despite legislations
such as PWD act (1995) and the new RPD act, no concrete policy has been framed dealing specifically with the
issue of higher education for them. Although some progress has been made in this respect in terms of providing
3 % reservation to Disabled students in admissions and conceptualizing the establishment of the Enabling Units
in the educational institutions, these provisions have often suffered from inadequate implementations.
Apart from this, we find the lack of an effective and meaningful participation of students and teachers in
academic and administrative functioning of these institutes. The primary reason could well be located in the
absence and exclusion of the Disabled in the decision making bodies which have left their concerns and issues
unaddressed. Besides that, the structural barriers and the overall unfriendly environment also play a decisive
role in imposing hurdles in effective and meaningful participation of Disabled in decision making process.
This seminar is an attempt to highlight these issues and concerns in specific context of higher education and
possible concrete action plans in resolving them. The objective of this seminar is to analyse the role played by
the government agencies and the Disabled Persons Organizations(DPOs) in empowering the persons with
disabilities especially in pursuing higher education and to explore the possibility of sensitizing disability in
society especially among fellow students, teachers and policy makers. This seminar would also provide an
effective platform to launch debates to promote disability perspective as an important vantage point in
academic and administrative matters of institutions of higher education. The proceedings of the seminar would
also enable us to prepare a comprehensive report about the state of higher education in India in relation to the
Persons With Disabilities which may go a long way in ensuring effective measures and policies