Student

Very little research has been conducted about academics with disabilities working in South African universities. This means their stories, and the challenges they face in the daily demands of their jobs, are not often told. Sibonokuhle Ndlovu, who holds a PhD in education and lectures on the subject, explains what her study of academics with disabilities revealed.

How many academics with disabilities are working in South Africa’s universities?

• There’s also not been much research about academics with disabilities in the country.
• And we do know that students with disabilities enrolled in South Africa’s institutions of higher education make up less than 1% of the student population.
• In short, there are relatively few academics with disabilities.

What was the purpose of your study?

• Most institutions’ lecture halls, toilets and libraries are not easily used by academics with disabilities.
• Read more:
  Six challenges that impede entrepreneurs with disabilities in South Africa

  The second challenge relates to research.

• Like all other academics in higher education, academics with disabilities are expected to conduct research as part of their work.
• An academic who cannot see when required to use a small needle on a patient, for instance, will struggle to complete the task.
• Higher education institutions should consider how to support academics in these areas, perhaps by providing research assistants.

Aren’t there policies to support academics with disabilities?

• But there’s a big gap in the policy: it doesn’t consider different categories of disabilities.
• Some universities have their own institutional disability policies, but I found over and over again in my research that students and academics with disabilities weren’t often invited to contribute.
• The policies were made for them rather than with them, which resulted in policies that simply didn’t work.

Sibonokuhle Ndlovu previously received funding from the National Research Foundation, to conduct research in the disability field from 2020-2022..

She is currently affiliated to the University of Johannesburg, Ali Mazrui Centre

• But are the British really bad at learning foreign languages?
• This comparatively short period of formal language learning is likely to have a substantial impact on language attainment amongst school leavers.
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have native languages which are taught both as second languages and through bilingual or immersion schooling.
• UK students’ learning of these native languages shows that when given significant exposure to a language, they can achieve fluency.

Choosing to learn

• Another factor to consider is why students learn languages, and how this affects their achievement.
• There will certainly be young people who feel that language learning is something they have to do, rather than something they want to take part in.
• However, other students are motivated to learn languages which they feel a personal connection to or see personal value in.

• English has become a global lingua franca, and consequently Anglophones can feel like foreign language skills are less needed.
• This also means that English language skills are a useful extra for many people around the world and allow them to get by in many countries – that’s a strong motivation to learn.
• Read more:
  The UK is poorer without Erasmus – it's time to rejoin the European exchange programme

  There is no evidence that British young people have an inability to learn foreign languages.

Abigail Parrish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Erasmus+ scheme – a reciprocal exchange process that let UK students study at European universities, and European students come to the UK – is again under the spotlight.
• The scope of the Turing scheme is more narrow, as it focuses on outbound mobility from the UK rather than reciprocal exchanges.
• Participating in international exchange programmes offers a plethora of benefits, ranging from personal growth to academic enrichment and professional development.
• I can attest to its profound role in shaping well-rounded individuals equipped with the skills to thrive in today’s interconnected world.

Benefits on both sides

• There are many benefits enjoyed by students participating in international exchange programmes.
• But welcoming international exchange students to UK campuses also offers huge advantages to universities and broader society.
• International exchange students bring with them unique perspectives, skills and experiences that enrich the learning environment for everyone.
• Language learning and international mobility go hand in hand in fostering essential qualities such as curiosity, empathy and effective communication.

Halting decline

• The ongoing decline in language learning in the UK is concerning.
• Academics and teachers are trying to address this and have been creating initiatives to re-think how we approach language teaching.
• To truly ensure equitable access to language learning, further investment is needed, coupled with a renewed commitment to international mobility.

Sascha Stollhans is affiliated with the Linguistics in Modern Foreign Languages project. The related research mentioned in the article was funded by Language Acts and Worldmaking, part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Open World Research Initiative, an Impact Accelerator Grant from the University of Bristol and a Research Start-up Grant from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Newcastle University.

• Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
• (From Michael’s fieldnotes)
  I finally locate the legendary Schneiders Buero, a shop selling analogue synthesizers in Berlin’s Kotti neighbourhood.
• Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
• (From Michael’s fieldnotes) As academics who rarely go a day without playing or making music, we have spent the past decade examining the extraordinary revival of analogue technology.
• This means there are now more analogue options available than at any time since the 1970s, the heyday of the modular format.

The appeal of the slow

• So we dived in.
• Eventually, these forays became our formal research project, which has included visiting record fairs and conventions around the world, going on photowalks and attending listening evenings, and meeting an array of diehard analogue communities both on and off line.

• The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.
• And we expect interest in such experiences to rise exponentially in coming years.
• Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.
• Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.

Saved from demolition

• Rather than nostalgia, they are turning to film because of its aesthetic values and a greater sense of creative control over their photos.
• In response, venerable brands including Kodak, Polaroid and Leica have re-emerged – in some cases, almost from the dead.
• We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
• We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
• He said luxury brands such as Gucci are particularly keen on using film photography as this gives their promotional material a different look.

Work, effort, meaning

• When it was conceded that digital probably was better for wildlife photography, James cut in:
  That’s to miss the point!
• The sound might be better but you miss seeing the work that went into the performance, the effort of the players and their crew.
• Work, effort, meaning – these ideas are all interconnected for users and consumers of analogue technology.
• However, when asked to compare the two, they talk about the greater weight and meaning they give to their analogue experiences.
• I think it is the quality of the human voice; it does feel more like someone’s speaking to me.

• And part of what makes this possible is the process of analogue recording, in which all the sounds being made, including the unscripted noise of the recording process itself, are captured in the final track.
• To facilitate this sound, some musicians have even started setting up their own pressing plants, such as Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

The joy of happy accidents

• Half of what you do trying to make music is like a happy accident that ends up sounding better than what you intended.
• When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
• When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
• It’s these happy accidents that we love.
• It’s these happy accidents that we love.
• For example, the opening bass part of Cannonball, the 1993 song by US Indie band the Breeders, accidentally starts in a different key.
• Bass player Josephine Wiggs began playing the riff one step down, then fixed it when the drums came in.

Digital technology is de-skilling us

• Over the decade or so of our research, explanations for the analogue revival have shifted from nostalgia, to the desire for something physical in a digital age, to the sense that analogue technology is creatively preferable.
• Is digital technology de-skilling consumers, leading to a sense of alienation?
• Using analogue technology is another way consumers can feed this desire to re-skill.
• Rob told us how his love of music had turned sour with the “sheer ease” of digital, starting with CDs and the MP3 player – and how vinyl had reinvigorated him.
• For him, the problem came when listening on digital devices without the “sides” of vinyl albums, and then on music streaming platforms whose digital algorithms preference popular tracks.

‘This song sucks’

• These are the people who want to stretch and break the rules and trigger the happy accidents that create something altogether new.
• For example, photographers who seek more creative expressions by pre-soaking or “souping” their camera film in lemon juice, coffee, beer, or even burning it.
• And among this group, connecting digital and analogue technology is also common – combining two completely different systems to generate even more possibilities.
• Film director Denis Villeneuve’s first instalment of Dune (2021) was initially shot on digital, then transferred to film, before being re-digitised.
• By combining the two, Villeneuve got a film that, in his words, has a “more timeless, painterly feel”.

For you: more from our Insights series:
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy

The artist formerly known as Camille – Prince’s lost album ‘comes out’

Beatrix Potter’s famous tales are rooted in stories told by enslaved Africans – but she was very quiet about their origins

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.