Students' Voices: Reflections Of Three Young Adults With Cerebral Palsy On Factors Facilitating Their Completion Of Mainstream Schooling In South Africa

In South Africa most children with physical disabilities, including cerebral palsy, are still excluded from mainstream education. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a few successes and hear the voices of students themselves in exploring factors that facilitated their successful completion of mainstream schooling in Cape Town. This complements the more frequently documented accounts of barriers to education, from the perspectives of teachers and/or parents and in other countries. Three young adult participants with cerebral palsy were recruited through volunteer sampling. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis led to the identification of three superordinate themes, 'Treat me the same, but treat me differently', 'Good communication is vital' and 'Ons gee om' [Afrikaans for 'We care']. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was used to frame the discussion. Practical recommendations for specific stakeholder groups were identified, which may be transferable to other contexts despite the unintentionally skewed all female sample in terms of gender and middle socio-economic class.