Film
Access on Campus
Barriers, Bias, and the Power to Create Change
The Disability Justice Project partnered with World Institute on Disability to train the inaugural cohort of Global Heumann Fellows in documentary storytelling as part of their year-long research projects. Read more about our partnership and the fellows here.
In Pakistan, disabled students continue to be excluded from higher education, facing inaccessible classrooms, a lack of assistive technology, and widespread bias. “When I wanted to take mass communication as my major subject, I was discouraged from the department,” says one former student. “They said, ‘Since you are visually impaired, how you will survive in mass communication?’” Others, like Babar Iqbal, a wheelchair user, point to deeper societal issues: “The biggest barrier in our society right now is related to attitude and behavior.” Edited and directed by World Institute on Disability Global Heumann Fellow Munir Moosa Sadruddin, this film calls for a more inclusive academic future where disabled learners can access, shape, and lead higher education.
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Filmmaker: Munir Sewani
Dr. Munir Sewani is a university teacher, researcher, socio-educational theorist, and disability advocate. He has been working as an Assistant Professor of Education at SMI University in Pakistan for the last 12 years. Additionally, he is the founding Volunteer Director of the Global Forum for Teacher Educators, where he provides free education to children, youth, women, and elders from disadvantaged communities.
Sewani has delivered guest lectures at various global institutes, including The Open University, UK, the School of Education at UC Berkeley, Adult School Berkeley, Northampton University UK, and Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. He has developed several educational models and frameworks, including his socioecoethical model of human rights education and his socio-ethical model of inclusivity.
As a Global Heumann Fellow, Sewani is focusing on understanding the educational challenges faced by persons with disabilities and will introduce a series of awareness workshops on Open Educational Resources (OER) for both individuals with and without disabilities. With support from the DJP, he is documenting educational challenges faced by university learners with disabilities in Pakistan. He believes that capacity development in OER can increase educational accessibility, promote collaboration, and bridge educational equity gaps.
