An Exploration of Human Geography Departments’ Accessibility to Students with Disabilities

Abstract: As part of the effort to better understand the experiences of students with disabilities, this study examines accessibility in Human Geography departments. Human Geography is known for its excursions and field studies, which brings the question of how they adapt their situations for disabled students. Also, how Human Geography departments identify disability and prevent discrimination. The study involves interviewing teachers at three departments of Human Geography at three different universities, those are Stockholm, Uppsala, and Mid Sweden University. To ask the question of how they adapt their education for disabled students. The findings suggest that Human Geography departments fail to mainstream special education and that they lack institutional support in making education inclusive and accessible for disabled students. Furthermore, there is a communication gap between students and the departments, and guidelines are not helpful or non-existing in defining how to make education for disabled students more accessible and adaptable. They identify disability by certificates and prevent discrimination by communicating with the disabled students.