Abstract
Despite the stronger presence of students with disabilities in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Anglo-American contexts, the expansion of inclusive higher education remains to be an ongoing and contentious process in many non-Western contexts, where basic support and services for students with disabilities are still largely unavailable. A recent accessible testing policy in China has significantly enhanced disabled young adults' access to mainstream higher education, doubling the number of newly admitted disabled students from 2014 to 2022. Despite significant improvement in the access to higher education along with the expansion of the international norms of inclusive education, systemic barriers within higher education institutions still prevail in China and other non-Western contexts. Using the photovoice method, this study investigates disabled young adults' access, relations, and identity in China's HEIs. It is found that in a higher education landscape where little disability service and support is available, significant barriers in accessibility, academic accommodation, interpersonal relationships, and disability culture hinder disabled students' meaningful participation in academic and social lives. In the face of these barriers, young adults with disabilities have developed knowledge of self-accommodation and self-advocacy to transform stereotypes, build community, and nurture affirmative disability identity in China's HEIs. Our study makes theoretical contributions by providing nuanced understanding of disabled students' negotiation of access, relationships, and identity that is situated in the socio-cultural and institutional contexts of China. It also makes methodological contribution by co-creating an inclusive, community-engaged research practices with young adults with disabilities in the inquiry of inclusive higher education.