Autonomy, participation and self-determination of people with disabilities at higher education levels

Abstract

Since the emergence of inclusive education in the eighties of the last century, the question of what it is for has arisen. Thus, different purposes have permeated its trajectory, initially focused on the physical incorporation and adaptation of people with disabilities to regular education, moving on to the achievement of learning and socialization, and nowadays considering educational goals such as participation, autonomy and self-determination. These are recognized in public policy guidelines, implying the incorporation of strategies for their development in educational practices, in addition to requiring evaluation criteria to assess their implementation and impact. As a result of the experience in the pluralities research line of the Senderos group, result reports related to research projects in the last five years are analyzed, using content analysis as a method, applied to texts and speeches to identify recurrent situations in the life of subjects with disabilities that today go through higher education. The conclusion is that these goals are characterized by permanent tension, according to the voices of people with disabilities, due to conflicting interests between the expectations and needs of the people themselves and the development of policies, which is evident in daily practices, in the case of participation, centered on capacity vs. deficit, of autonomy, in self-identification vs. stereotypes, and of self-determination, in the ability to make their own decisions vs. hegemonic practices in the curricula.