Participation and Physical Disability in Higher Education in El Salvador.

Abstract

The approach to disability as an object of study has been carried out in multiple investigations, however, there is a small number of studies focused on measuring the attitudes of university teachers towards the participation of people with a specific disability. The objective of the study we present is to determine the attitudes of teachers from three salvadoran private universities towards PEDM (Participación educativa de Estudiantes con Discapacidad física Motriz for its acronym in Spanish) in the teaching-learning processes at the higher level, for which 30 university professors have been surveyed. The results show significant differences between teachers globally and those with students with motor physical disabilities in their classrooms. Although universities are betting on the training of university teachers in terms of educational inclusion issues, the results demonstrate the fact that the expected objectives are not being achieved. In addition, these reflect the existence of a small number of students with motor physical disabilities in the selected Salvadoran universities. The conclusions point to the need to create training actions for university teachers and the importance of awareness, accompaniment and curricular adaptations to favor people with motor physical disabilities in the teaching-learning process of higher education.