Improving Accessibility and Personalisation for HE Students with Disabilities in Two Countries in the Indian Subcontinent - Initial Findings

National reports indicate access to HE for students with disabilities is limited in India and Bangladesh. These reports highlight the issue of exclusion of people with disabilities, women and economically disadvantaged students. The Supreme Court of India directed all higher education institutions to reserve 5% of places for people with disabilities and make the institutions accessible, as mandated by the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. It was observed that even premier educational institutions have failed so far to implement the provisions of the RPWD Act. Surveys have been conducted to assess the provision available, the knowledge of and opinions about this provision amongst staff and students at Indian and Bangladeshi Universities. This paper examines the initial findings of these surveys and reviews the state of the art for technical ameliorations which might be implemented, in the context of DiversAsia, a three-year capacity building project. Specifically, the aim is to develop accessible HE OERs and MOOCs, and personalisation using AI, that will enable better provision of open distance learning for those that experience architectural barriers. These accessibility solutions are a clear response to the challenges and barriers identified in the staff and student surveys. The accessibility approaches to be adopted will address the challenges faced by students with disabilities (including socio-economic and gender issues) entering higher education in Asia and will focus upon: a handbook suggesting strategies to overcome the issues of inclusion, diversity and cultural differences; a toolkit with guidelines, checklists, good/best practices to implement universal design of learning; and an assessment and validation strategy for OERs and MOOCs to review and assess their level of accessibility. Here we discuss the survey findings and review the state of the art, to describe what specific and concrete actions can be considered within the context of the project.