Abstract:

This paper reports on a study that investigated the effects of the Covid19 pandemic on learners with disabilities in Kenya. The study compared the impact of COVID 19 on learning among learners with and without disabilities. The research adopted a descriptive comparative approach to the investigation of the effects of Covid19 on learners with disabilities. The mixed method study design was adopted by the research. Although equal samples were targeted, more learners without disability (163), their parents (166) and teachers (39) participated in the study, compared to learners with disabilities. There were one hundrend and thirty one (131) learners with disabilities, their parents (132) and teachers (32) who took part in the study. The guiding hypothesis to the study was that there was no difference between the effect of the pandemic on the two categories of learners (those with and without disabilities). Four categories of learners with disabilities were targeted in the sdtudy, being learners with visual, hearing, physical and learning disabilities. All the targeted learners had to have been in school at the time of the COVID 19 related school closures. Four counties in Kenya, namely Kiambu, Meru, Mombasa and Siaya, were purposefully sampled to represent a large proportion of the Kenyan landscape but also because these were counties that inABLE organization, which was the local financier of the study had project interests. It consisted of survey questionnaires and interview guides for learners, parents and teachers, representing learners with and without disabilities. The literature review was used to find out not only the existing information on the pandemic, but also previous challenges faced by learners with and without disabilities during emergencies. Data was collected during the first COVID 19 related school closures in Kenya. Interview guides were digitized and data collected through tele-interviews for all the respondents except for learners with hearing impairment whose data was collected through face to face interviews assisted by sign language interpreters. The parents, teachers and learners were all sampled and both tools applied to them. The same sample size was targeted for both learners with and without disabilities, parents and teachers, but actual representaion was skewed in favor of learners without disabilities. The study contends that measures put in place to contain the pandemic had adverse effects on learners, especially those with disabilities. It notes that social distancing significantly disadvantaged learners with disabilities since they had limited access to learning, limited to no access to their social circle of friends and they had to face tougher environments at home and other environments during the extended period out of school. The main recommendation was that the different stakeholders (parents and communities, non state actors, government and especially the Ministry of Education) must put in place measures that would avert any further physical and psychological trauma for the learners with disabilities during the school closures and in future.

Keywords:

COVID 19, Pandemic, Learners with Disabilities, school closures, Kenya.