Technology Use Among Academics With Disabilities Within a Transforming University

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the experiences of academics with disability within a Zimbabwean university context. Transforming universities under the Education 5.0 policy in Zimbabwe despite its good intentions has revealed some of the unresolved challenges. This chapter reveals how transformation practices especially with increase in technology use have presented opportunities and challenges for disabled sections of academic society within university spaces. The chapter also highlights how academics with disabilities face and how they ultimately negotiate their way within diverse structures that act as enablers on the one hand whilst being equally a source of barriers on the other. In-depth interviews, observations, and literature are used. The chapter concludes by highlighting how the importance of being conscious to contextual factors and embracing day to day experiences could represent opportunities for broadening access to technology and subsequent inclusion of academics with disability whilst also aiding transformation of universities and the broader Zimbabwean society.

Fieldwork Dynamics in a Higher Education Setting amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In some cases, the focus has been on how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-face interviews due to the restrictions on physical contacts (Will, et al, 2020). In some instances, literature has focused on how lived experience, practices, norms, and knowledge could be positioned through education whilst also extending the focus on the significance of expanding connectivity and technologies for universities Nyoni & Marazi, 2021). In a slightly different dimension, this paper uses the concepts of reflexivity and positionality of researchers and participants in understanding how the lived experiences and associated practices influence participants responses during fieldwork.…”