Between Policy and Practice: Institutional Barriers to Inclusive Employment for Visually Impaired College Teachers in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Public colleges in Punjab are legally committed to providing access facilities/environment and equal employment of teaching staff with disabilities in the National Inclusive Employment Framework, including the Higher Education Commission Policy for Students with Disabilities at Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan, and the Punjab Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act (2022). However, the institutional environment to translate these commitments into practice, as far as the affiliated college sector is concerned, is largely missing in Punjab. This is qualitative research that aimed to explore the link between 'Inclusive Employment Policy' with the lived professional realities of visually impaired college teaching staff of public colleges in Punjab, Pakistan. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview with ten purposively sampled visually impaired college teachers of various ranks, disciplines, and location of the college in the province. The Reflexive Thematic Analysis resulted in four themes: Policy-practice gap as institutional amnesia, self-provision - privatising reasonable adjustment, adaptive pedagogy - no institutional scaffolding, and professional identity - structural exclusion. The research findings reveal that the policy-institutions interface of inclusive employment in Punjab is not due to imperfect policy implementation but rather stands for cases of non-institutionalisation of the policy. Completely new qualitative evidence is provided within the lower-middle-income South Asian setting, while there are direct implications for the Higher Education Department, Punjab, and the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan.

Keywords: Visual Impairment, Inclusive Employment, College Teaching, Policy-Practice Gap, Reflexive Thematic Analysis, Institutional Barriers, Punjab, Pakistan