The development of any nation depends on its citizens. Every citizen has their contribution to the development of a nation even the disabled person. They also have an equal rights to get a higher education. Higher education increases the chance of employability, thus, affirming dignified life for persons with disabilities. As per Census 2011, in India, out of the 121 Cr population, about 2.68 Cr persons are ‘disabled’ which is 2.21% of the total population. But it has been seen that very few of these people reach higher education. According to census 2011, 61% of the disabled children aged 5-19 years are attending an educational institution, 12% attended educational institutions earlier while 27% never attended educational institutions. That makes the author think and ask about how our higher education institutions are accessible for disabled students. How inclusive are our higher education institutions? In the light of the above-mentioned problems the present paper has discussed the education of children with special needs in higher education specifically with respect to visual impairment, hearing impairement, locomotor disability, and speech-related impairment. The discussion starts with what all kind of legal provisions and reservations which are there for them in higher education and how many are utilized and used by them. What all things are there in the new education policy for them specifically in higher education, whether their needs have been realized in detail or it has been just touched superficially and at the end, few suggestions related to all these issues have been discussed.
GOI (2011). Census of India 2011: Data on Disability, Government of India, Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, New Delhi, India. Retrieved from: censusindia.gov.in
Jeffery, R., & Singal, N. (2008). Measuring Disability in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 43(12/13), 22-24.
Mehortra, N. (2004). Women, Disability and Social Support in Rural Haryana, Economic and Political Weekly, 39(52/56), 40-44.
MHRD (2019). All India Survey on Higher Education. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, New Delhi.
MHRD (2020). All India Survey on Higher Education. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, New Delhi.
MHRD (2020). National Education Policy 2020. Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi, India.
Mohanty, S. P., & Jena, S. S. (2015). Perception of teachers about educational provisions for students with disability in higher education institution. Pedagogy of Learning, 1(4), 92-104.
Muralidharan (2019, July 30). Access Denied. The Indian Express. Retrieved from: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/india-national-educationpolicy-unesco-children-with-disabilities-right-toeducation-5861820/
Nagarajan, R. (2013, December 2). Disabled people cleared UPSC but wait for the service allocation, Times of India. Retrieved from: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/disabled-people-clear-upsc-but-wait-forservice-
allocation/articleshow/26713017.cms
NCPEDP (2019). Gaps in DNEP vis-à-vis people with disabilities and corresponding inputs. National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP) and National Disability Network. Retrieved from: https://ncpedp.org/documents/Inputs%20on%20The%20Draft%20National%20Education%20Policy%202019.pdf
Prabavathy, M. (2016). Awareness and Attitude of Faculty Members towards Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR), 2(9), 749-755.
RPwD (2016). The Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, New Delhi, India. Retrieved from: http://www.upfcindia.com/documents/rpwd_101017.pdf