Self-advocacy for Inclusion: A Case Study of Blind Students in the University of Gondar, Ethiopia Tadesse Abera, Dawit Negassa* Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education-Haramaya University, Ethiopia Corresponding author: Dawit Negassa, E-mail: dawitnegassa2002@gmail.com ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-advocacy practice for inclusion of blind students in the University of Gondar. A case study design with qualitative inquiry approach was used. In-depth interview guide which was developed out of comprehensive review of literature was used as data gathering instrument. The in-depth interview instrument on its content and construct validity was checked by one blind special needs education professional who works as an instructor in the Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education in the University of Gondar. There were only fve blind students in the university; three were taken as the rest two were unwilling. The data collected through semi-structured interview guide was analyzed thematically in four dimensions of self-advocacy: knowledge of self, knowledge of rights, communication and leadership. Additionally, there was a theme that investigates how the blind students were self-advocating in fghting back their challenges. Results indicate that the blind students were not found to be self-advocates for their inclusion. Except in knowledge of self to some extent, they were found to have limitations in their knowledge of rights, communication and leadership. Recommendations such as improving knowledge of rights, communications and leadership have been forwarded. Key words: Blind Students, Communication, Inclusion, Knowledge of Rights, Knowledge of Self, Leadership, Self-advocacy INTRODUCTION All too often students with disabilities (SWDs) enter Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) lacking the proper understand- ing of how their disability affects their learning (Brinkerhoff, McGuire, and Shaw, 2002; Getzel and Briel, 2006; Getzel and McManus, 2005). As a result, these students are not able to effectively self-advocate the services and supports needed to address the academic challenges in HEIs. SWDs often- times perceive themselves as unprepared for the increased rigor of HEIs; as a result, they are frequently challenged in both their transition to HEIs and in their retention to com- plete a degree or certifcate (Hilary, 2006). This can lead to anxiety and diffculties with academic expectations leading to decreased retention rates (Connor, 2012; Reed, Kennett, Lewis, Lund -Lucas, Stallberg and Newbold, 2009). Self-advocacy studies are conducted mostly in the devel- oped northern world and the studies coming from these cor- ners of the world indicated that self-advocacy is important for students with disabilities for their adjustment in univer- sities. For example, Katharine (2007) conducted a study in USA to see the difference between students with disabili- ties and students without disabilities in their attribution style to both positive and negative events, university adaptation and perceived self-advocacy. She took 230 SWDs and 115 Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.7n.2p.1 SWODs from four universities and one college. She con- cluded that an increase in self-advocacy skill was associated with an increase in psychosocial adjustment to disability, in- stitutional attachment, and academic adjustment. In the African continent, the issue of disability and self-advocacy of SWDs in HEIs as research agenda is se- verely lacking. Supporting this idea, Croft and Morley (2011) from Brighton, United Kingdom, came to Africa to undertake a study on the issue at hand focusing in Ghana and Tanzania, but they were unable to fnd out adequate re- search fndings in the continent. They fnally concluded in their research, In research, links between higher education access, equalities and disability are being explored by scholars of the sociology of higher education. However, with the exception of some small-scale studies from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda and Pakistan, literature tends to come from the global North. Yet there is a positive correlation between disability and pover- ty – especially in the global South (Croft and Morley, 2011; p. 383). Coming to Ethiopia, over the last few years, HEIs (pub- lic universities) in Ethiopia increased from 11 to 44 and enrollment rate also reached to 100,000 per annum [current- International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies ISSN: 2202-9478 www.ijels.aiac.org.au ARTICLE INFO Article history Received: January 18, 2019 Accepted: April 17, 2019 Published: April 30, 2019 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Conficts of interest: None Funding: None