Education is human rights of each individual without distinguishing the condition as assigned on World Education Forum of United Nations on 26-28 April 2000 in Dakar, Senegal. There were six Regional Frameworks for Action that one of them was fulfillment of all people’s need to learn and to enhance their abilities. “Education should not differentiate backgrounds, ethnics, religion, and races, and anyone including the disabled may get fair education. However, education for the disabled now should gain serious concern,” presented Drs. Zamakhsari, M.Pd. in a defense of the 26th dissertation defense at meeting hall of A.R. Fachruddin A, Floor 5, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY).
The dissertation of Zamakhsari was entitled ‘Learning Styles based on Self-Regulation of Blind Students at Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Kalijaga Yogyakarta’. According to Zamakhsari, the data of graduation of period III (2010/2011) showed that there were 27 blind students studying at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta. “Nevertheless, they did not obtain special treatment during their study that they had to learn as the normal people. Indeed, lecturers occasionally treat the students differently and the university has not established regulation dealing with services for the disabled,” he argued.
Zamakhsari inserted that the disabled had willingness to succeed as that of the normal students, but the learning environment did not support them to foster skills of the disabled. “Thus, a university or any educational institution that has the disabled students has to escalate academic services. For instance, lecturers apply self-regulation method that students can decide the lessons they are interested in and the learning styles, but the lecturers remain to monitor them to achieve the goal of the learning,” he presented.
He recommended that the Disabled Service Study Center (PSLD) could orientate the universities providing information of the use of the disabled services. “The study center should assist the disabled to employ university facilitates. The university should differentiate the facilities for the disabled from the normal students,” he emphasized.
Additionally, the dissertation defense was attended by head of the defense Dr. Achmad Nurmandi, M.Sc., secretary of the defense Prof. Dr. Siswanto Masruri, M.A., and examiners Prof. Dr. Sutrisno, M.Ag., Prof. Dr. Usman Abubakar, M.A., Dr. Tasman Hamami, M.A., Dr. Muhammad Nurul Yamin, M.Si. Based on the promoter and examiners, Zamakhsari achieved Doctor of Islamic Education Psychology with ‘A’ grade. Zamakhsari conveyed that the defense dissertation aimed at revealing the self-regulation of the disabled at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta.
