Abstract:
Empowerment opportunity of students with disability has been described as the available
chance of enhancing the capacity of students to make choices and to transform those choices
into desired actions and outcomes. One of the very important and recognized parts of
empowerment is accommodations. The term disability is broad and covers a range of
disabilities and health issues, including both congenital and acquired disabilities. Visual and
physical disabilities are the parts of acquired disability. Students with disabilities are the
most recent marginalized group to move toward equal opportunity in education following
low-income persons, racial and ethnic minorities. The purpose of this study was to assess the
challenges opportunities of students with disability at University of Gondar. The qualitative
research approach and Case study research design were used. The target population of the
study was students with visual impairment and students with physical disability and
additionally workers of University. The Study respondents were selected by using purposive
sampling technique. The respondents of the study were 17 students and 3 workers. Semi structure interview, key informant interview and focus group discussion were used as data
collection tools. The thematic analysis method was used to analyze the collected data. The
finding of this study indicated that the challenges of students with disability include
inadequate learning materials, financial problems, socio-cultural problems (stigma or
negative attitude towards students with disability), instructors’ related problems and
environment related problems. The opportunities for students with disability at Gondar
University include financial support (pocket money and payment for readers of texts and
exam) in some extents, learning material supports, and special dormitory placement services.
Finally, the researcher recommended the University of Gondar to work on these challenges
of students with disability to fully participate in their education as required.
