Everyday Life of Students With Disabilities Using Assistance Services in Poland: Lessons From the Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning of university students with disabilities using assistant support services in Poland. The study aims to (1) reveal the role existing university-based assistant services play in students' lives and (2) examine the impact of the pandemic on assistant services by students with disabilities.

Methods/Approach

We gathered and analyzed 25 interviews with students with disabilities from across Poland, from public and nonpublic higher education institutions.

Findings

The assistant support service at universities introduced in Poland proved to be fragmentary and limited only to the educational process, which resulted in the exclusion of people with complex disabilities and those requiring support in self-care activities. The pandemic has exacerbated previously observed dimensions of segregation and inequalities leading to disproportionate isolation of students with disabilities. It also highlighted the limited understanding of personal assistantship functioning in the academic context and the need for urgent development of universal access to assistance services across Poland. At the same time the forced move to distant, internet-based learning, at least for some students, gave them a sense of self-reliance and independence.

Implications

This research adds to the understanding of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for students with disabilities in the case of Poland. It also calls for a reexamination of what personal assistance should mean in the context of higher education and beyond.

Citation

Giermanowska, E., Racław, M. and Szawarska, D. (2023), "Everyday Life of Students With Disabilities Using Assistance Services in Poland: Lessons From the Pandemic", Carey, A.C., Green, S.E. and Mauldin, L. (Ed.) Disability in the Time of Pandemic (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 193-210. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-354720230000013011