"We Are Just Accommodated but Not Included": A Deleuzo-Guattarian Exploration of In/accessibility Involving Students with Disabilities in Higher Education in Zimbabwe.

Legally binding international and national policy instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), obligate state parties to protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities (PWDs), including access to education (Article 24) at all levels on the basis of equal opportunity. Formal education is regarded as a potential site for transformation, particularly for those living in chronic poverty. Although the number of students with disabilities (SWDs) entering higher education is rising globally, research suggests that SWDs continue to encounter accessibility challenges within higher education environments. Yet, accessibility is a precondition for independent living and full participation on an equal basis with everyone (UN, 2006). The problem of inaccessibility is considered to be exacerbated in resource-poor contexts due to their unique and complex socio-material conditions, particularly poverty. Inaccessible higher education environments compromise educational outcomes for SWDs, thereby heightening the chances of falling into the poverty trap. To contribute to the ongoing discussion at the intersection of disability and accessibility in higher education environments in the Global South, I experimented with Deleuze and Guattari's idea of assemblage analysis to explore how in/accessibility is reproduced within a higher education institution (HEI) in Zimbabwe. I aimed to move away from essentialist and binary conceptualisations of accessibility and inaccessibility, defined by essential and immutable characteristics. Without an iota of doubt about these being fictitious or to be abandoned, they arguably reflect a simplistic view of accessibility, which can be problematic in resource-poor contexts. Data for the study were collected through an experimental Deleuzo-Guattarian informed qualitative inquiry, using multiple data collection methods: walking/go-along interviews, photovoice, focus group discussions and follow-up interviews with twenty six purposively selected undergraduate students who self-identified as visually and physically impaired, studying at a HEI in Zimbabwe. The study embedded a reflexive approach through the use of vignettes as a reflective tool. Drawing on new materialist literature, data were analysed through an experimental process of 'assemblage component accounting'. This process produced four overlapping in/accessibility assemblages: place/space, teaching, learning and assessment and digital and extracurricular activities (ECAs) assemblages. Each assemblage elucidates how in/accessibility is reproduced in that domain. Although the labels may read familiar and conventional, they emerged from data analysis rather than being imposed as categories. As depicted in Figure 1, the four assemblages ceaselessly overlap and intersect in a complex fashion. Research findings indicate that in/accessibility within the HEI studied is ceaselessly reproduced along a continuum, mediated by dynamic and shifting socio-material components that continuously produce in/capacities for SWDs in accessing, on an equal basis with everyone, premises, products, services and facilities open to the university community. Notwithstanding the socio-material relations that co-produced accessibility (both formal and informal), findings strongly suggest that SWDs endlessly engage in countless inaccessibility battles, constantly negotiating and renegotiating access as they navigate higher education. Inaccessibility produced both transient and potentially long-lasting effects, such as missing lectures, missing and incorrect grades, physical and emotional exhaustion, exclusion from university communal spaces and over-reliance on personal helpers for accessibility. SWDs also spent longer to navigate physical and digital spaces, among other challenges. Findings from this study contribute to advancing our understanding of how in/accessibility is reproduced in elusive and resource-poor complex contexts, typified by ever-shifting socio-material relations. The study provides a framework to rethink and respond to disability and in/accessibility, beyond premeditated, legislative adherence and tick-box approaches of accessibility audits toward more complex and fluid strategies that can transform higher education spaces and maximise equity of opportunity for all students. The study proposes a Relational Collaborative Model, which can serve as an analytical lens for relational, complex and nuanced explorations of the socio-material production of in/accessibility for SWDs in HEIs and beyond.