Abstract
Students with physical disabilities in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges face impossible daily choices, continuous discriminatory comments, and a lack of academic support. They expend limited energy navigating inaccessible buildings, rather than using it to understand complex coursework. These stark trade-offs between basic needs and educational participation define their academic journey. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of students with physical disabilities enrolled in a TVET college, revealing how institutional promises of inclusion collide with exclusionary realities. Guided by the capability approach, the research uncovered six interconnected themes that paint a picture of systematic exclusion operating across physical, social, and institutional dimensions. Participants described exhausting daily battles, missing crucial learning opportunities because buildings lack basic accessibility, and facing discrimination that drove them to isolation. These were not isolated incidents but interconnected barriers that compounded. Inaccessible infrastructure drained the cognitive resources needed for learning, while safety concerns prevented participation in study groups, and social isolation cut off the networks vital for academic success. The findings reveal a troubling gap between policy and practice. While South Africa’s Constitution guarantees educational equality, participants found themselves formally enrolled but fundamentally excluded, present on campus but unable to genuinely participate. They described institutional responses that prioritised compliance over capability development, treating their requests for basic access as unreasonable demands rather than fundamental rights. This research matters because the participant voices represent countless others navigating similar barriers. Their experiences demand that TVET colleges move beyond checkbox inclusion towards genuine transformation, creating environments where physical differences do not determine educational destinies, where all students can convert their potential into real academic and social achievements.