Health sciences and inclusive pedagogy: a qualitative study exploring educational practices for students with disabilities at Spanish universities Anabel Mori~ na* and Inmaculada Orozco *Correspondence to: A. Mori~ na. E-mail: anabelm@us.es Received on 5 June 2020; accepted on 31 March 2021; editorial decision on 31 March 2021 Abstract The number of people with disabilities who study at university is rising. Previous studies have revealed that it is not enough simply to provide these students with access to university, it is also important to guarantee their retention and suc- cess. This article explores participants’ actions and their appraisals of their teaching practice in relation to disability in campus-based education. The study was conducted with 19 Spanish faculty members from the Health Sciences who were nominated by their students with disabilities for having contributed to their inclusion. We carried out a qualitative study based on individual, in- depth, semi-structured interviews. We analysed the data progressively, using a system of catego- ries and codes. The results section outlines the actions taken by faculty members upon learning that they were going to be teaching a student with disabilities, analysing what specific meas- ures they took in accordance with the type of dis- ability in question, and what they found most rewarding and most difficult or unpleasant about their experience with these students in the classroom. The study concludes that the voices of these faculty members may encourage other col- leagues to rethink their actions in the classroom and engage in more inclusive practices. Introduction The number of people with disabilities who study at university is rising [1, 2]. This increase, which is occurring in different international contexts, has also been identified among students of health- related academic disciplines [3]. Nevertheless, pre- vious studies have revealed that it is not enough sim- ply to provide these students with access to university; rather, it is also important to guarantee their retention and success [4], since dropout rates among students with disabilities are higher than among the general student population [5]. These students often drop out because they do not feel supported, understood, welcome and included at university [1]. The high dropout rates reported may be linked to the fact that the majority of universities espouse a medical model of disability [6], meaning that they focus on the pathology, impairment or dysfunction itself, rather than recognizing that it is the system, which generates barriers to learning [7]. Practices linked to this medical model often result, e.g. in stu- dents preferring not to disclose their disability [8]. They renounce the support to which they are entitled because they want to have a ‘normal identity’, rather than be identified with a disability [9], due to either the stigma attached to this condition [9] or the nega- tive attitude of faculty or fellow students. Thus, another conception of disability is required in order to help retain these students and ensure their success. One alternative that emerged at the end of the 1960s was the social model of disability, which posits that it is higher education (HE) that must adapt to students, not the other way round; i.e. it is the class that must be altered [6, 10, 11]. In fact, at present, some universities that are adopting the so- cial model and, more recently, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), are contributing to learning and V C The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com doi:10.1093/her/cyab017 HEALTH EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.36 no.3 2021 Pages 337–348 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/her/article/36/3/337/6319655 by Universidad de Sevilla user on 29 March 2022