The Representation of Disability in Higher Education Institutions in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

Investment in education and cultural development over the past 50 years has seen a rapid expansion in higher education throughout the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). This expansion of higher education has brought ethnic diversity, with students and staff from many countries moving through the region to study or teach. However, although this ethnic diversity is now common, there remain few students or academic staff members with openly-declared physical or learning disabilities in GCC higher education. This chapter has two aims. The first aim is to discuss the findings of a review of documents and datasets on higher education and disability in the GCC. The second aim is to contribute to the debate on the economic, social and cultural promotion of inclusion in GCC universities and higher colleges. The results of the review demonstrate: 1) the continued lack of students and staff with declared disabilities could in part be due to and reflected in the lack of recognition of disability in documentation on higher education in the GCC; 2) few data sets exist that can determine the influences on a changing demography in the GCC’s jurisdictions or the pressures of the GCC’s economy on the education, training and social and financial support for people with disabilities in the region. The review concludes that the continued lack of students and staff with declared disabilities is in part due to and reflected in the lack of recognition of disability in the culture of higher education in the GCC.