Educational Resource Needs and Access to Tertiary Education among People with Disability in Bayelsa State

Abstract

The paper investigated educational resource needs and access to tertiary education among people with disability in Bayelsa State. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses tested in the study. Mixed method approach was adopted in the study while 165 respondents consisting 160 persons with disability, four Deans of Student Affairs and an executive of Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) in Bayelsa State were sampled for the study using multistage sampling technique. Respondents were selected from within and outside four randomly selected tertiary institutions namely; Bayelsa Medical University (Yenagoa LGA), Federal University Otuoke (Ogbia LGA), Niger Delta University (Southern Ijaw LGA) and Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education (Sagbama LGA). Instruments used for data collection were questionnaire for the persons with disability as well as Focus Group Discussion while five Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)was conducted with the other respondents. Data collected quantitatively were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and t-test while the qualitative data was analyzed using content and thematic analysis. The finding of the study indicated that financial resource, policy intervention and assistive technology were the priority educational resource need of the respondents. Inaccessibility to tertiary education has implication on the employment prospects and human rights of the respondents and this can only be corrected through appropriate policies, better infrastructure among other strategies. There were differences between the opinion of students and non-students on the issues interrogated. It was recommended that the government should collaborate with school administrators to create a fund for persons with disability who wish to acquire tertiary education across all spheres.