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      Including the excluded in Open and Distance Learning in Namibia: Policy transformation to maximise the inclusion of students with visual impairments

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            Abstract

            It is evident that there is an increase in the enrolment of students with disability in Higher Education, particularly Students with Visual Impairments (SVI). However, it is also sad to note that, this group of students remain excluded and thus are less visible in Open and Distance Learning (ODL). The current pandemic (COVID-19) has put to test, the preparedness and pro-activeness of most higher education institutions to include students with disabilities in different modes of teaching and learning. This paper observed, reviewed, and analysed various legislatives to determine the preparedness of different ODL Centres of selected HEIs in Namibia. Amongst others, some national and institutional legislatives revealed lack of obliging guidelines to compel HEIs to commit to the inclusion of students with disabilities particularly the SVI. The paper concludes that there is lack of policy guidelines in HEIs toward inclusive education and consequently most institutions remain reluctant to prepare and be proactive to include SVI in the ODL programme. The paper calls for policy transformation at national, ministerial, and institutional, to move toward inclusive education through all modes of learning.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            ScienceOpen Preprints
            ScienceOpen
            20 May 2021
            Affiliations
            [1 ] Department of Tourism NUST
            [2 ] Department of Education UNAM
            Author information
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2268-0401
            Article
            10.14293/S2199-1006.1.SOR-.PPPYUB3.v1
            5a5b13d8-e3ea-4a91-af86-17c9b870cc46

            This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

            History
            : 20 May 2021

            All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).
            Education,Social & Behavioral Sciences
            Visual Impairments; Open and Distance Learning; Disability; Legislative; Exclusion; Inclusion; Inclusive Education

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