A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY ON THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHALLENGES OF INDIVIDUALS WITH HAEMOPHILIA-A IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The present study adopts descriptive case study design to document the lived experiences of haemophilic learners. A multiple Holistic case study approach was employed, wherein each case was treated as a single integrated unit of analysis. Multiple case design perceives each of the two cases as a separate unit of analysis, and patterns were drawn to find similarities and dissimilarities across the two cases. This design strengthens the research findings from being specific to a few instances to generally being valid and reliable. In multiple case studies, data collection is research-rigorous and involves multiple sources of evidence (Haemophilia A learners, parents, siblings, friends, teachers) through interviews. The results were structured based on emerging themes from the Indo-Deductive Thematic Analysis of the interviews. Further triangulation of data from multiple sources brought in the validity and reliability to the study and provided a holistic understanding making the findings more comprehensive. The study focused on understanding numerous challenges related to learners with Haemophilia-A at higher education institutions such as frequent bleeding episodes, physical constraints, social exclusion, lack of institutional support, financial burdens etc to name a few. The study also threw light on the role of their support systems in their lives to tackle these challenges. This research, thus brings to light various educational, physical, emotional, mental and social challenges faced by haemophilic individuals and also highlights the need for better policy -frameworks, guidelines and awareness amongst all stakeholders associated with haemophilic individuals.