The response of higher education institutions in Namibia to the needs of students with disabilities

This article reports on research that was done about the way in which institutions of higher education in Namibia respond to the needs of students with disabilities. Five categories emanated from the data, namely prevalence of disability; management of disability-related data by institutions of higher education; modes of identification and disclosure of disability used by institutions; human and material resources available to students with disabilities; and institutional support structures for students with disabilities. The findings of this article show that certain strides were made by higher education institutions in Namibia to address the needs of students with disabilities. But the ideal to establish higher education institutions where full-inclusion is put into practice has not been attained. The research clearly indicated that current practices and attempts of accommodating students with disabilities in higher education institutions exhibit characteristics of integration or mainstreaming rather than inclusion.