ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on using the capabilities approach as a frame of analysis. It introduces a language of wellbeing and agency, while taking account of the relationship between individual opportunities and social arrangements that shape students’ ability to convert their means to achieve into freedoms and achievements. The chapter discusses earlier studies that have analysed the lives of people with disabilities using the capabilities approach, although these have not been located in higher education. It explores major issues discussed in studies on disability in higher education, both internationally and nationally. The capabilities approach has been used to study many disability-related issues. One way of resolving the dilemma of difference within the capabilities framework is through the identification of a list of valued capabilities that are context-specific. The capability for social relations and social networks is linked to functionings such as being able to participate in a group at the university either for learning or pleasure.
