A critical analysis of disability through processes of open learning

The research project, seeking to gain a greater insight into the influence of open learning on disabled students lives, was established in January 1994, being initiated through the Open University. The sample population comprised eighteen Social Service undergraduates in a specific region of the O.U. - all of whom identified as having a disability when enrolling for studies. The focus of the research was not only to determine how open learning, with its specific characteristics of open access and flexible methods for study, aided the informants' development but was also a means of providing a critical analysis of the ways in which students' lives (as a consequence of disability) might be constrained in the process of learning.A grounded theory approach was selected as the method for conducting the research in order to obtain an in-depth account of participants' personal experiences as open learners, data being mainly derived from in-depth interviews with each student examining their impressions of different aspects of the open learning programme based on mixed-mode provisions.The subsequent analysis of the data led to an emergent theory indicating that the impact of open learning not only aided participants in the deconstruction of disability - (gaining a greater awareness of the ways in which impairment influenced their progress) but also assisted in the reconstruction of their lives - education being found to have a positive effect on aspects of disabled students' personal, inter-personal and social development. As the research incorporates a critical dimension the presentation of the data was aligned with Habermas (1973) model of critical theory - the first section 'Deconstructing Disability' accounting for both oppressive and liberatory conditions in the process of learning; the second 'the Reconstruction of personal lives' demonstrating the ways in which open learning aided students' development. The critique also sought to extend democratic practices by giving the informants' individual accounts prominence when illuminating the data as well as including their opinions in the validation of the theory.