Efforts to make higher education more inclusive for persons with disabilities in Rwanda and across East Africa continue to face major setbacks, with experts pointing to persistent infrastructure gaps, limited access to assistive technology, and a shortage of trained rehabilitation professionals as key barriers slowing progress.

Stakeholders say many universities still lack barrier-free facilities, while access to assistive devices remains uneven and inaccessible to many students who need them most.

Concerns were also raised over high dropout and repetition rates among students with disabilities, alongside negative attitudes and limited awareness within institutions of higher learning.

The issues dominated discussions on May 19, at the University of Rwanda’s (UR) Regional Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and e-Health (CEBE) at Kigali Innovation City, during the final dissemination conference of the "Breaking Barriers in Education: Inclusion, Rehabilitation, and Technology (BERT) Project.”

Regional project seeks to bridge inclusion gaps

The initiative, implemented in partnership with JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University from Finland, as well as the State University of Zanzibar in Tanzania, seeks to strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions in East Africa to better address barriers affecting the inclusion of persons with disabilities in education and wider society.

Experts warn that such challenges continue to undermine global commitments to inclusive education, despite education being recognized as a fundamental human right under Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which calls for equal access to education for persons with disabilities.

Universities urged to invest in assistive facilities

"The BERT project at the University of donated tow assistive devices, the braille machine that print and a scanner that scans hard paper including books from Libraries, to put them into soft copies that can be printed with braille for readable documents by students with visual impairments”. Prof David Tumusiime, BERT Project, Rwanda PI and Deputy Director CEBE, at UR's College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

"We have few resource rooms across our campuses which we're working on increasing so that the idea becomes a reality,” he added.

Tumusiime noted that lack of necessities has been a major challenge to many students with special cases especially visually impaired. This would have continued if nothing was done to push for such an indispensable cause.

"We’re working on setting up facilities, training more facilitators, collaborations across institutions and attending pending policies,” he said. "We need to update our data on people with disabilities, and this will help us in planning.”

The project, which began in 2024, is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and administered by the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI).

UR Vice Chancellor calls for sustained collaboration and policy reforms

Despite progress made globally and regionally, many educational institutions in developing countries continue to face significant barriers in implementing inclusive education.

"With the generous support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, through the Finnish National Agency for Education, this collaboration has shown what can be achieved when institutions come together with a shared vision and commitment,” said UR Vice Chancellor, Associate Professor Didas Kayihura Muganga.

Muganga indicated that as part of CEBE, the BERT Project has been a powerful goal of breaking barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from accessing, participating and succeeding in education.

"Through work in rehabilitation sciences, assistive technologies, digital innovation, and institutional capacity building, the project has made meaningful contributions toward advancing inclusive education both within our institutions and across the region,” he said.

"As we celebrate the achievements of this project, we must also look ahead. The real impact of BERT will be seen in how we sustain these efforts, strengthen partnerships, scale innovative solutions, and continue influencing policy and practice across our institutions and countries, he added.

Experts highlight need for teacher training and awareness

Aychesh Nigussie Koski, working with JAMK University of Applied Sciences believes that creating inclusive higher education requires multiple-sectors collaboration and lots of commitment comprehensively.

"Lack of critical knowledge among the teachers about disabilities in general and how to address it is very alarming,” she said. "There’s no single solution or one that fits all the approaches. Disabilities vary and they all need to be addressed based on people.”

"Rwanda has a promising journey and people are very interested because they really want to help. They're positive and empathetic. They don't know how to help them, that is the challenge and that enthusiasm will bring some changes,” she added.

Students with disabilities seek fairer academic support

Germain Muchunguzi, a second-year student at Rukara College of Education, said that very few people with disabilities are able to access higher education due to institutional structures that need to be reformed to better support and include them.

"They should think about additional opportunities for us. For instance, I am expected to achieve the same pass marks as someone without disabilities. This is not fair, and they should consider giving more opportunities to people with disabilities,” he said.

Data shows that about 70 per cent of children with disabilities in Rwanda attend primary school, but this drops significantly to roughly 12 per cent for secondary education.