For many students with disabilities, getting accepted to a university is only the initial barrier. Staying there, participating fully and succeeding often depends on whether the institution has the right support systems in place.

That support should include accessible infrastructure, assistive technology, exam concessions, reasonable accommodation, mental health care and staff who understand how to respond to all students’ needs. Without these systems, disability inclusion can easily end up being treated as an add-on rather than a core part of how higher education can, and should, work.

This is the main challenge that the Access4ALL project was designed to overcome. Funded by the FirstRand Foundation and implemented in collaboration with the Higher Education Disability Services Association (HEDSA), Access4ALL aims to strengthen Disability Rights Units at South African higher education institutions and support the development of more inclusive campuses. The initiative focuses on building the capacity of disability unit professionals, improving collaboration between institutions and helping universities embed disability inclusion into their policies, governance and everyday practice.

Access4ALL came about as a response to the gaps identified in the Department of Higher Education and Training’s 2018 Disability Framework, which highlighted the need for stronger institutional systems to support students with disabilities. Established in 2021, Access4ALL has since completed a national situational analysis across 23 universities, onboarded four institutions for targeted support and developed training modules covering areas such as disability advocacy, universal design, neurodiversity and mental health.

Following the first phase of implementation, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Sol Plaatje University, Rhodes University and the University of Zululand were selected to participate in the targeted support phase. The programme is being implemented in three stages: a baseline assessment and preparation phase; capacity building for the four selected institutions; and an evaluation phase to capture progress and learning, and develop recommendations for future work.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has played an important role in this work. Long recognised for its leadership in higher education transformation, UCT’s Disability Service has developed structured approaches to reasonable accommodation, accessible infrastructure and support for students and staff with disabilities. In 2025, UCT became a key partner in Access4ALL, helping to co-create and deliver eight capacity-building modules for the sector.

UCT also contributed to the development of institutional Theories of Change, giving participating institutions practical roadmaps for embedding disability inclusion into governance, policy and campus culture. Importantly, this process brought together students, staff, leadership and external partners, ensuring that lived experience helped shape institutional priorities.

As part of the project, UCT hosted benchmarking sessions, sharing its experience in areas such as exam concessions, reasonable accommodation models and accessible infrastructure. These sessions gave peer institutions a practical view of what a more integrated approach to inclusion can look like, one that considers academic, psychosocial and physical access together rather than in isolation.

For the FirstRand Foundation, this work aligns closely with its vision of a financially inclusive society with equitable access to sustainable economic growth for all. The Foundation’s approach is not only to fund programmes, but to strengthen the people, organisations and systems that allow those programmes to endure. Access4ALL aligns with this philosophy by investing in capacity building within higher education, while also supporting quality education for students who are too often excluded by systems that were not designed with them in mind.

The Access4ALL approach is built on an understanding that true disability inclusion requires skills, resources, institutional commitment and collaboration. It also requires universities to move beyond case-by-case support measures towards a holistic and systemic approach that fully integrates inclusion into how they design teaching, learning, assessment and student support.

For students with disabilities, the impact of this work is practical and deeply personal. It can mean receiving lecture material in an accessible format, writing an exam with the right support arrangement, being able to move around campus more freely, and having access to university staff who understand their needs.

These should not be “extras.” They need to become the conditions that universities have in place to ensure all students participate fully, complete their studies and pursue their futures with dignity. Disability inclusion cannot be a separate transformation issue - it must be central to tertiary institutions’ commitment to equity, access and social justice.