Beyond accommodation: Building a Unisa where everyone can belong

What does it mean to truly belong at a university? For some, it may be as simple as walking into a lecture venue, accessing information, logging on to a digital platform or asking for assistance.

For others, these everyday experiences can become daily negotiations with environments and systems that were not designed with different abilities in mind.

For Dr Nozuko Langa, a lecturer in the Department of Information Science, navigating such an environment has been part of her academic journey.

“One of the challenges was having to navigate an environment that was not always designed with different forms of ability in mind,” she says.

As a distance PhD student who relied heavily on technology, Langa experienced moments when she had to work harder to demonstrate her capabilities and ensure that her disability did not become the dominant narrative about who she was as an academic.

For her, accessibility extends far beyond physical infrastructure.

“It includes access to technology, communication, information, appropriate support and an environment in which people are not constantly required to explain or justify their needs.”

According to Bheki Nxumalo, Deputy Director of Unisa’s Advocacy and Resource Centre for Students with Disabilities (ARCSWiD), creating genuine inclusion requires a shift in how disability is understood.

Rather than viewing inclusion primarily through the lens of individual accommodation, Nxumalo advocates for an institution that anticipates barriers and removes them wherever possible.

Reasonable accommodation remains essential, he says, but it should be supported by accessible course design, inclusive teaching and assessment, accessible digital systems, appropriately equipped learning environments, staff capacity development and accountable institutional processes.

The measure of inclusion should therefore not simply be whether a student has been admitted or provided with a device.

The more important question is whether that student can participate independently, engage with the curriculum and university life, communicate effectively, complete assessments fairly, contribute intellectually and experience a genuine sense of belonging.

“The crucial question is not simply, ‘Did we provide a service?’ It is, ‘Did the service enable the student to participate, exercise agency and pursue academic success on an equitable basis?’” Nxumalo says.

Bheki Nxumalo.

For Thakani Masuka of Unisa’s Supply Chain Management, meaningful inclusion begins with independence.

An inclusive university, he says, should have systems that allow persons with disabilities to navigate their environment independently before assistance becomes necessary.

That principle is tested in everyday experiences that many people may take for granted.

A lift, for example, may enable a person to move between floors, but without auditory feedback it can remain inaccessible to a visually impaired person. A modern building can still create barriers without Braille signage, while communication can become difficult when security and help-desk personnel have not received appropriate sign-language training.

These barriers can easily remain invisible to people who do not encounter them in their daily lives.

Masuka believes awareness is an important part of changing this reality.

“Lack of knowledge is a hindrance to many,” he says.

He argues that accessibility should be considered when buildings and facilities are designed, rather than addressed later through costly and disruptive retrofitting.

But accessibility is not limited to buildings, technology and physical systems.

Pintias Nkuna at his graduation ceremony.

Pintias Nkuna, Acting Student Health and Wellness Practitioner in the Directorate of Student Development within the Department of Student Affairs, says meaningful disability inclusion also requires the removal of attitudinal barriers within the university community.

This includes respecting facilities intended for persons with disabilities and recognising that inclusion is a shared responsibility.

The principle of designing for inclusion rather than retrofitting it is central to Nxumalo’s vision for Unisa.

For an open distance and e-learning institution, accessibility extends well beyond the physical campus.

Websites, learning platforms, digital study materials, assessments, videos, electronic documents and third-party applications can either expand participation or create new barriers.

An inaccessible digital environment can affect almost every part of a student’s university experience, from registration and learning to assessment, communication and access to support.

Nxumalo believes accessibility should therefore be embedded into institutional design from the outset.

Accessible document templates, captioned multimedia, alternative text, logical headings, keyboard navigation, sufficient colour contrast, flexible assessment approaches and compatibility with assistive technologies are not merely technical considerations. They are part of creating equitable learning environments.

This is where Universal Design for Learning becomes particularly important. The approach seeks to remove unnecessary barriers without lowering academic standards, while providing different ways for students to engage with learning, access information and demonstrate what they know.

Technology has enormous potential to transform disability inclusion.

Artificial intelligence and assistive technologies can support real-time captioning, speech recognition, text-to-speech, image description, optical character recognition, language translation and accessible document conversion.

For visually impaired students, these technologies can improve access to printed and visual information. For Deaf and hard-of-hearing students, captioning and transcription can create additional pathways to communication and learning.

But technology is not automatically inclusive.

Nxumalo cautions that AI systems can introduce new barriers when they are incompatible with screen readers, Braille technology or keyboard navigation, or when captions, translations and image descriptions are inaccurate.

There are also concerns around privacy, algorithmic bias, unequal access to devices and connectivity, as well as the ability of systems to recognise African accents, languages and contexts.

For technology to genuinely advance inclusion, it must therefore be developed and tested with people with disabilities, with accessibility, privacy, human oversight and accountability built into the process.

The objective should be clear: technology must enhance agency, not replace it.

Perhaps the most important principle underpinning the transformation of disability inclusion is representation.

The phrase “nothing about us without us” captures the importance of involving people with disabilities directly in decisions that affect their lives.

Students and staff with disabilities should not be viewed merely as recipients of support. They are knowledge holders, researchers, innovators and contributors to the intellectual life of the University.

Their lived experiences can expose assumptions embedded in curricula, technologies, policies and institutional practices, while helping to create better systems.

This means involving people with disabilities in policy development, procurement, system design, user testing and programme evaluation.

It also means creating meaningful opportunities for participation in student governance, research, leadership and wider university activities.

At Unisa, ARCSWiD’s Forums for Students with Disabilities and its Peer Mentorship Programme provide platforms through which students can strengthen self-advocacy, navigate the institution and contribute to conversations about disability matters.

Inclusion becomes meaningful when people are not simply consulted, but can see their contributions influencing decisions.

Nxumalo also argues that disability inclusion should be central to how an African university understands itself.

African universities operate within contexts shaped by diverse languages, cultures and communities, as well as inequality, poverty, rurality, uneven connectivity, inaccessible transport and unequal access to assistive technology.

An inclusive university must therefore combine dignity and social justice with practical measures that expand people’s real opportunities.

With South African Sign Language recognised as South Africa’s 12th official language, inclusion requires more than providing interpreting services when requested. Deaf students should be able to access, engage with, produce and share knowledge through their preferred language.

That vision extends to teaching, assessment, university communication, student support, research and knowledge production.

Ultimately, inclusion is not simply a matter of compliance. It is about dignity, participation, independence and recognising that people engage with and contribute to knowledge in different ways.

For Unisa, building such an environment means moving beyond asking whether people with disabilities have been accommodated and asking a more fundamental question: Can everyone participate, contribute and belong?

* By Lesego Chiloane, Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement