Navigating Access and Social Engagement for Students With Special Needs in Higher Education: a Contemporary Empirical Analysis in Southeastern Nigeria
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Despite ongoing national and international policy initiatives championing educational equity, students with special needs in developing countries continue to face pronounced systemic barriers that restrict their entry into and meaningful social participation within tertiary institutions. This study investigates the socioeconomic, institutional, and human dignity dimensions of higher education access and social engagement for students with special needs in Southeastern Nigeria. Framed around two principal research objectives, the study specifically examines: (1) the financial and socioeconomic barriers hindering higher education access, and (2) the impact of institutional policy frameworks and sociocultural dynamics on social engagement and inclusion. Employing a mixed-methods empirical design, quantitative data were collected via structured questionnaires administered to 240 university undergraduates with special needs across public universities in Southeastern Nigeria, complemented by qualitative key-informant interviews with 16 disability support officers and student counselors. Descriptively, findings reveal that prohibitive costs of adaptive assistive technologies, high living expenses, and inadequate targeted financial assistance construct severe financial barriers (M = 3.52, SD = 0.60). Furthermore, rigid institutional policies, structural infrastructural deficits, deep-seated sociocultural stigma, and a lack of human-centered technological accommodations severely constrain students' campus integration and self-efficacy (M = 3.44, SD = 0.64). Crucially, synthesizing modern technological frameworks with human rights principles underscores that preserving individual agency and human dignity as articulated in recent scholarship on AI and human dignity is indispensable for transforming institutional equity. The paper concludes with actionable recommendations for multi-tiered financing schemes, legislative enforcement of universal design standards, and dignity-centered institutional policy reform.
Institution: Nwafor Orizu College of Education
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214122932