ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how students with disabilities navigate different barriers they face on their way to and at university. It provides ways of thinking about what can be done in relation to full inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education. The chapter contributes to the equity debate beyond access to the university to include what happens before, during and after students have been admitted. Usually coping mechanisms are described using the term ‘resilience’, referring to a person’s ability to resist a downward movement of wellbeing by mobilising his or her potentiality. Participants conceptualise disability differently from the dominant negative discourses. Thus, another way in which they cope is how they challenge the validity of stereotypes or cultural narratives about disability through different approaches. Support from family, friends and staff shows that students with disabilities individual mechanisms for coping at universities is nurtured and cultivated by other external agencies.
