India’s higher education policy framework increasingly talks about inclusion. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) places obligations on educational institutions to promote inclusive education, while the University Grants Commission (UGC) has, over the years, developed guidelines and institutional mechanisms intended to ensure that students with disabilities (SwD) can participate in higher education on an equal basis.
Despite these measures, the dearth of remedial support makes them vulnerable to academic exclusion and widens existing educational inequalities. Limited digital access further restricts their access to online learning resources, digital libraries, academic databases, and other educational platforms, hindering participation in technology-enabled learning and limiting their ability to make full use of academic opportunities.
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Most recently, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities listed the Accessibility Guidelines and Standards for Higher Education Institutions and Universities, issued by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, on June 25, 2024. The UGC describes these guidelines as part of its effort to ensure equal participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities in higher education.
Importantly, the UGC states that every higher educational institution (HEI) is expected to develop an effective accessibility mechanism extending from the admission process through the completion of the course. The Commission issued fresh directions to universities to furnish a report along with statistical information in respect of students admitted, teaching and non-teaching recruitment, as well as fellowships/scholarships provided to PwD students through the Universities Activity Monitoring Portal (UAMP) by September 30, 2026. It calls for the need to form an Internal Committee comprising teachers, staff, students and parents to take care of the day-to-day needs of persons with disabilities.
Yet institutional attention to disability often becomes focused on admission, reservation, and physical infrastructure. The more difficult question of what happens to the student after admission receives considerably less attention.
“The national statistical architecture measures how many students with disabilities enter higher education but does not adequately measure what happens to them after they enter colleges and universities,” disability rights activist and Professor at University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Dr. Satendra Singh told The Hindu.
Students with disabilities may enter higher education with varying levels of exposure to accessible learning environments. Some may require additional academic assistance, remedial classes, note-taking support, assistive technologies, or additional time and flexibility to engage with coursework. A student who misses classes because of disability-related issues may not have access to a structured academic mechanism to navigate the backlogs. The result is a form of exclusion that is not visible in institutional statistics.
Supportive system needed
The RPwD Act itself points to Section 16, which requires not merely admission without discrimination, but reasonable accommodation, necessary support, and monitoring of participation, academic progress, and completion. The UGC’s own accessibility framework similarly speaks of an accessible mechanism covering the student journey from admission to completion. But the lack of adequate remedial support has a direct bearing on how students with disability perform academically.
“Majority of the HEIs do not have a rights-based understanding of reasonable accommodation. They are still stuck with ramps, braille and talking books,” Dr. Singh said.
Pointing to the 2023–24 AISHE data, he said, “Of the 4.50 crore students enrolled in HEIs, the reported 54,080 students with benchmark disabilities (SwBD) represent approximately 0.12% of total higher-education enrolment. This is about 12 SwBD per 10,000 students. The AISHE reporting does not provide a detailed disability-type categorisation. This is a significant data gap because ‘SwBD’ is an extremely heterogeneous category. A student who is blind, a deaf student who uses Indian Sign Language (ISL), a student with dyslexia, an autistic student, and a student with psychosocial disability can have completely different accessibility and academic-support requirements.”
Dr. Sanjay Kant Prasad, Director of the National Centre for Disability Studies at IGNOU and former Deputy Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, echoes his views. He said, “Higher education must recognise that the 21 categories of disabilities identified under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act have diverse and often distinct educational needs. While some disabilities may require limited remedial support, students with blindness, low vision, hearing impairment, deafness, cerebral palsy, autism and learning disabilities, among others, may require specific forms of academic and assistive support.”
He stresses that inclusive education does not mean eliminating specialised support. Rather, it is about creating an accessible environment in which the same educational curriculum can be accessed by students with different needs.
“In higher education, teachers may not require specialised training for every disability, but they should at least be oriented to disability-related needs and know how to make classrooms, teaching methods and learning materials accessible. This could include tactile materials and Braille for students with visual impairments, appropriate seating and mobility support, hearing aids or visual aids for students with hearing impairments, and the use of assistive and digital technologies such as text-to-speech software,” Dr. Prasad said.
Citing IGNOU’s efforts to provide study material at students’ doorsteps, counselling through teleconferencing and facilities for submitting assignments using computers, while following government and UGC guidelines, Dr. Prasad feels students’ ability to remain in education depends on broader social and economic support, not just classroom accommodations. Housing, awareness of available services and support from disability organisations are important factors.
Progress has been made over the past several decades from exclusion towards inclusion, but implementation remains uneven, and continued awareness, teacher training, and institutional support are needed to navigate the barriers.
In schools, the structures for remediation are more readily available than in higher institutions. The multi-tiered systems of support are a comprehensive framework that help provide individualised support to students.
Under this tiered system, the first level of support is the universal support that is offered to all students to help them learn better; the second level is classroom-based strategies and only the third level involves intensive care such as remediation.
“Often, students who reach higher education come equipped with an understanding of their own needs, have developed learning strategies, and carry an arsenal of tools that have been offered to them since school. Therefore, not every SwD requires remediation; some might require accommodations and modifications. Here is where inclusive EdTech, digital access, and online learning resources come in handy,” Dr. Rajeshwari Muthukumaran, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Neurodiversity Research and Innovation at Christ (Deemed-to-be University), said. She runs a support group aimed at fostering a sense of belonging and building a community on campus with students with disabilities, and neurodiverse students.
Although SwD might already come with their specific digital tools/modified equipment, they may still need guidance and access to software and tech tools often used in their domain.
Significant resource gaps persist, including the availability of Braille-translated materials and books in accessible typefaces. These constraints make it more challenging to design and implement tailored remediation programmes.
Additionally, institutional resource limitations, including a shortage of faculty with both subject expertise and training in developing accessible curricula, pedagogical practices, and assessment methods, as well as limited spaces and opportunities for one-on-one student-faculty support, further compound the problem.
Drawing from experience, Dr. Muthukumaran said, “I have met students who often enter higher education with a mix of hope, anxiety, and anticipation, and are seeking a supportive and approachable guide/mentor/peer who can offer them a safe and understanding space and serve as a support system. While guiding them in classrooms, I often end up recommending students to mental health professionals/supportive online communities where they can exchange ideas and converse with individuals with similar experiences to help them deal with campus life overall.”
Evidently, more colleges have now started looking into strategies, establishing specialised cells and centres that further look into research and student support. “While there is a long way to go, this scattered chatter needs to grow louder, unanimously, to shape future education and move towards evidence-based inclusive practices,” Dr. Muthukumaran added.
The digital divide
Considering that higher education has become increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure, learning management systems (LMS), university portals, digital libraries, online journals, e-books, recorded lectures, online assignments, examination portals, email systems, and virtual classrooms are now integral to campus life. For many learners, this digital environment offers greater convenience, flexibility, and access to educational resources. But for students with disabilities, digital technologies can be either powerful enablers or, when accessibility is inadequate, can become significant barriers to participation and academic success.
A university website that cannot be navigated effectively with assistive technology can make admission and administrative processes more cumbersome. A PDF that is simply a scanned image may not be usable for a blind student. An online learning platform without appropriate keyboard navigation, captions, transcripts, or alternative texts can prevent students from participating on equal terms.
Digital exclusion can widen the educational divide even when the physical campus is accessible. This is particularly important because UGC’s own framework requires online programmes to meet accessibility standards for learners with disability. If education is delivered digitally, its accessibility must be inclusive.
The lack of adequate data makes it difficult to assess the enormity of students’ plight. “There is no AISHE, NAAC or NIRF indicator reporting the percentage of students with disabilities in higher education who have access to accessible LMS platforms, screen-reader-compatible material, captions, Indian Sign Language interpretation or accessible e-books,” Dr. Singh said.
Without such indicators, institutions may be able to report enrolment and infrastructure without demonstrating whether students with disabilities can actually access, participate in, and benefit from digital learning on an equal basis. The absence of systematic data also makes it difficult to identify gaps, assess institutional performance, or hold institutions accountable for meeting accessibility requirements.
“We need a stricter implementation protocol for higher education institutions as there is mostly a lack of awareness and enforceable rules that institutions should follow,” says Deepa Palaniappan, Disability Inclusion practitioner, highlighting the need for more discussions, training, and handholding, as well as forming national task forces and committees to track effective inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education institutions across the country.
Reality check
For Delhi University (DU) alumnus and disability rights activist Ashutosh Singhal (24), the challenges of being an undergraduate and later postgraduate student of Political Science were harrowing. ‘’I use a regular, mainstream computer with a screen reader that reads out the text and other information displayed on the screen. This means that questions appearing on the computer can be read aloud to me, enabling me to access and answer them independently,” Ashutosh said, who suffers from late-onset visual impairment (retinitis pigmentosa), a condition in which the vision can gradually deteriorate.
Beating the odds, he managed to use a computer to write his Political Science BA and MA exams in Hindi, which was the first instance of its kind.
“Initially, they gave me a computer that crashed. The computer instructor apparently knew that there were problems with the computer but did not inform me beforehand. A substitute computer was eventually provided, but by then considerable examination time had been lost. I was told that I would receive additional time to compensate for the lost time, but this was not implemented adequately. Since the examination authorities had to collect and pack the answer scripts at a fixed time, I was under pressure to finish and submit my answers immediately,” he added. Ashutosh was also made to sit in a computer lab during the exam where the constant noise made it difficult to detect the sounds of the screen reader, disrupting his flow of thoughts.
Ashutosh’s experience made him realise that the biggest difficulty for students with disabilities is often not the technology itself which is already available. It is about getting institutions to recognise and implement accessibility provisions consistently.
A student may have to repeatedly explain their requirements, submit applications, approach different departments, contact outside organisations, and persuade officials to make arrangements that should ideally be part of a standard accessible examination system. “For me, the computer and screen reader made it possible to access examinations independently. But the institutional process surrounding the technology created many obstacles. Accessible examination systems should be implemented proactively rather than requiring students with disabilities to repeatedly request, justify, and negotiate for accommodations each time they have an examination,” he added.
(Rajlakshmi Ghosh is a journalist with over three decades of experience in media houses and educational institutions)
