Public Policy and ICTs for Higher Education of Disabled Students in Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian government’s policy on inclusive education determined that students with all type of disabilities (physical, mental and social) should be mainstreamed into general schools regardless post-secondary schools/colleges/universities. As a result, those disabled graduating from vocational high school should be satisfied with non-formal occupation. By improving their scientific enquiries through ICT aid, they could pursue further education in accounting, management, architecture, design graphics, translator, etc and enjoy formal occupations for a much better income. This paperexamines to what extent the government policies have or have not effectivelypromoted the rights of the disabled to higher education and training via the use of information communication technology. This paper draws on a survey of fivehigh schools for the disabled at Central Java and Yogyakarta with total of 170 students. It was found that there is no Presidential Decree or Ministerial Decree on post-secondary education /higher education of the disabled. Even the Presidential Decree No 75 of 2015 was oriented to the national action plan for the disabled (2015-2019) such as implementing the respect, protection, fulfillment, enforcement, and promotion of human rights in Indonesia.