/ Empirical research context

Disability inclusion in Kenyan higher education

Individuals should not be defined by a single characteristic.  

This is particularly pertinent in Kenya where the intersection of disability with other identity facets, such as ethnicity and gender, creates unique challenges (Young, 2012). For instance, a woman from an ethnic minority with a disability may face compounded discrimination, limiting her access to educational resources more severely than her counterparts (UNGEl & Cheshire, 2021). Understanding these layered experiences is vital for crafting effective inclusion strategies. While there have been efforts to study disability inclusion in Kenyan education, there's a notable paucity of research that delves into how intersecting identities influence access and participation. 

According to the 2019 Population and Housing Census, 2.2% of Kenyans aged five and above have a disability, with 1.9% of males and 2.5% of females affected. However, this figure likely underestimates the true prevalence, as the World Report on Disability estimates a global disability rate of 15% (ICED, 2023). In Kenya, there is currently no comprehensive disability-disaggregated data available for key metrics such as employment and education. Existing evidence, however, suggests that individuals with disabilities are disproportionately excluded from these sectors. They face numerous barriers, including negative societal attitudes, inaccessible infrastructure, a lack of accessible learning resources and assistive technologies, insufficient funding, a shortage of skilled personnel, and weak enforcement of disability rights laws. A comprehensive comparison of youth schooling outcomes between those with and without disabilities remains underexplored in current national survey data. However, the collection of disability-related data during the 2019 Population and Housing Census offers hope that more detailed indicators will be available in the future.  

Analysing data from the 2009 Population and Housing Census, as presented on the Disability Data Portal, reveals significant disparities in educational attainment between individuals with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. Specifically, only 44% of persons with disabilities completed primary school, compared to 60% of those without disabilities. The gap widens further at the secondary level, with just 17% of individuals with disabilities completing secondary education, compared to 27% of their non-disabled counterparts. Data at Higher Education level is incomplete but is expected to widen yet further. Thus, these statistics underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions to address the educational inequalities faced by youth with disabilities in Kenya. 

Exacerbating this issue is the alarming discovery that less than 4% of public institutions meet the legally mandated 5% job reservation for individuals with disabilities. This highlights a critical need for improved compliance across all sectors. Furthermore, as of July 2022, only 35% of institutions employed any disabled workers, resulting in just 1.32% of the total workforce being individuals with disabilities. The Kenyan National Council for Persons With Disabilities (NCPWD) Career Portal, established to connect job seekers with disabilities to potential employers, has seen considerable engagement, with over 1.9 million job listings viewed. However, the platform's effectiveness is undermined by the fact that 63 out of 369 institutions have yet to register, and many others have not actively used it to post job opportunities. This lack of participation significantly reduces the employment prospects for qualified candidates with disabilities (NCPWD, 2024). Therefore, this project seeks to address these gaps by offering nuanced insights into how these disparities impact the educational and professional trajectories of individuals with disabilities. 

Strategic pillars

Four core project objectives

Build the evidence

Convene the sector

Build capacity

Publish openly

Survey disabled students across Kenyan universities to establish existing provisions, missing infrastructure, and student-ranked priority barriers.

Bring advocacy groups, policymakers, institutions, and community stakeholders together to validate empirical findings and co-create practical recommendations.

Deliver targeted training sessions for university leadership and academic staff on inclusive teaching, adapted assessments, and accessible governance.

Place all findings in open-access journals and permanent open data platforms so higher education institutions retain long-term guidance.

Empirical evidence

Key research findings

Governance priority

Policy outweighs concrete infrastructure

Disabled students ranked governance, policy implementation, and institutional advocacy as higher priorities than physical building alterations.

Sensory exclusion

Sensory access remains minimal

While ramps and wide doorways are prevalent, Braille signage, auditory cues, and hearing loops remain virtually absent across surveyed campuses.

Institutional disclosure

Official records undercount disability

Fourteen percent of survey respondents disclosed a disability to researchers that they had never declared to their university, citing career concerns and privacy.

Digital access

Digital platforms require compliance

Only 4.7% of surveyed university websites met WCAG 2.1 AA web accessibility standards, creating significant barriers to online academic resources.

Research leadership

Project investigators

AccessKen is led jointly by researchers from the University of the Built Environment in the United Kingdom and Kenyatta University in Kenya.

Principal Investigator

Co-Investigator

Analysis Lead

Prof Angela Lee

Dr Muhammad Qasim Rana

Prof Ruth N. Wanjau

Dr Lekan Damilola Ojo

University of the Built Environment, UK. Researches inclusion and equity in built environment education and institutional governance structures.

University of the Built Environment, UK. Focuses on built environment accessibility and inclusive infrastructure research across East Africa.

Kenyatta University, Kenya. Coordinated regional research operations, institutional engagement, and stakeholder collaboration across participating Kenyan universities.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Executed the fuzzy synthetic evaluation analysis underpinning the empirical survey findings and published outputs.