Judith McKenzie

Professor: IDEA Director

Judith (Phd) has worked in the disability field since 1980, when she graduated from the University of Cape Town with a degree in speech and hearing therapy. In 1988 she was employed at a rural hospital in South Africa, Tintswalo Hospital, where she participated in community based and interdisciplinary efforts to address disability, exclusion and poverty. In 1995 she was selected as a fellow on the Kellogg International Leadership Programme, and she benefited from international experience on inclusive education. In December 2009 she was awarded the UNESCO/Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah Prize for promoting quality education for persons with intellectual disability.

In the Division of Disability studies, she convenes the course, Disability Studies in Education and teaches Developing Critical research Literacy on the postgraduate diploma in Disability Studies at UCT. She convenes the MPhil and PhD programmes in Disability Studies. Judith has supervised or co-supervised nine master’s graduates to completion and graduated five doctoral candidates.  

She was the principal investigator responsible for the Teacher Empowerment for Disability Inclusion (TEDI) project and currently director of the Including Disability in Education in Africa (IDEA) research unit. She has worked in the field of inclusive education for over 20 years at all levels of the education system and published on the topic. She is the mother of a young man with Down Syndrome and has an intense interest and engagement with issues surrounding intellectual disability on both personal and professional levels.

Research areas

  • Inclusive education, particularly as regards policy development and teacher education
  • Intellectual and developmental disability across the lifespan
  • Digital education with a focus on Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Publications (select)

Karisa, A., Samuels, C., Watermeyer, B., McKenzie, J. & Vergunst, R. (2022). Priorities for access to early childhood development services for children with disabilities in South Africa. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 12(1), 1-7. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v12i1.1119

Vergunst, R. & McKenzie, J. (2022). Introducing the Including Disability in Education in Africa Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. African Journal of Disability, 11, 5 pages. doi: https://doi.org/10.4102/ajod.v11i0.946

Karisa, A., & McKenzie, J. (2022). I Be Africa Man Original: Towards a Contextual Conceptualization of Father Involvement in the Education of Children with Disabilities in Kenya. Disabilities, 2(1), 28–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/disabilities2010003           

McKenzie, J., Shanda, N., & Aldersey, H. M. (2021). Family–teacher partnerships: families' and teachers' experiences of working together to support learners with disabilities in South Africa. British Journal of Special Education, 48(1), 26-49.

Karisa, A., McKenzie, J., & De Villiers, T. (2021). ‘Their status will be affected by that child’: How masculinity influences father involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities. Child: Care, Health and Development, 47(4), 517-524

McKenzie, J., Kahonde, C., Mostert, K., & Aldersey, H. M. (2021). Community participation of families of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in South Africa. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 34(2), 525-536.

Vergunst, R., McKenzie, J., & Hansen, A. (2021). Capacity building for quality care and education for children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities in South Africa. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities

McKenzie, J., Meyerson, K. and Watermeyer, B. (2021) Dealing with difference: A scoping review of disability in education in South Africa (pp. 189-214) In Maringe (ed.) Systematic Reviews of Research in Basic Education in South Africa. 1st ed., African Sun Media, 2021.

McKenzie, J. (2021). Intellectual disability in inclusive education in South Africa: curriculum challenges. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 18(1), 53-57.

Kahonde, C. K., McKenzie, J., & Wilson, N. J. (2020). The Impact of Lifelong Family Care on Family Caregivers’ Perceptions of the Sexuality of Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities in the Western Cape of South Africa. Sexuality and Disability, 38(1), 95-105.

Walton, E. & McKenzie, J. (2020) The education of children with disabilities in South African online news reports., In J. Johanssen & D. Garrisi (Eds.). Disability, Media, and Representations: Other Bodies. Routledge.           

McKenzie, J. A., & Dalton, E. M. (2020). Universal design for learning in inclusive education policy in South Africa. African Journal of Disability, 9.

McKenzie, J., Kelly, J., Moodley, T., & Stofile, S. (2020). Reconceptualising teacher education for teachers of learners with severe to profound disabilities. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-16.

Karisa, A., McKenzie, J., & De Villiers, T. (2020). To what extent is the schooling system willing to change to include disabled hildren? Disability & Society, 35(9), 1520-1526.

Watermeyer, B., McKenzie, J., & Swartz, L. (Eds.). (2019). The Palgrave handbook of disability and citizenship in the global south. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Ferguson, B. T., McKenzie, J., Dalton, E. M., & Lyner-Cleophas, M. (2019). Inclusion, universal design and universal design for learning in higher education: South Africa and the United States. African Journal of Disability, 8(1), 1-7.

Peta, C., Wengraf, T. & McKenzie, J. (2019). Facilitating the voice of disabled women: the biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM) in action. Contemporary Social Science, 14(3-4), 515-527.

Kahonde, C. K., McKenzie, J., & Wilson, N. J. (2019). Discourse of needs versus discourse of rights: family caregivers responding to the sexuality of young South African adults with intellectual disability. Culture, health & sexuality, 21(3), 278-292.

Kahonde, C. & McKenzie, J. (2019). Sexuality and Citizenship for People with Intellectual Disabilities in Lifelong Family Care: Reflections from a South African Setting. In B. Watermeyer, J. McKenzie, & L. Swartz (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South (pp. 105-118), New York: Palgrave.

McKenzie, J. A., Abrahams, T., Adnams, C., & Kleintjes, S. (2019). Intellectual disability in South Africa: the possibilities and limits of democratic rights. Tizard Learning Disability Review

Wood, T., Essop, F., Watermeyer, B., & McKenzie, J. (2019). Access to Education for Children with Severe to Profound Intellectual Disability in South Africa: The Potential and Limits of Social. In B. Watermeyer, J. McKenzie, & L. Swartz (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South (pp. 135-145), New York: Palgrave.         

Tarusarira, W. & McKenzie, J. (2019). Disability, Migration, and Family Support: The Case of Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers in South Africa. In B. Watermeyer, J. McKenzie, & L. Swartz (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South (pp. 359-369), New York:

Wilson, N.J., Frawley, P., Schaafsma, D., O’Shea, A., Kahonde, C., Thompson, V., McKenzie, J, & Charnock, D. (2019). Issues of Sexuality and Relationships. In J.L. Matson (Ed.). Handbook of Intellectual Disabilities: Integrating Theory, Research and Practice (pp. 989-1010). New York: Springer.

Peta, C., & McKenzie, J. (2019). Bodies (Im) politic: The Experiences of Sexuality of Disabled Women in Zimbabwe. In B. Watermeyer, J. McKenzie, & L. Swartz (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South (pp. 251-267), New York: Palgrave.          

Capri, C., Abrahams, L., McKenzie, J., Coetzee, O., Mkabile, S., Saptouw, M., ... & Swartz, L. (2018). Intellectual disability rights and inclusive citizenship in South Africa: What can a scoping review tell us?. African Journal of Disability (Online), 7, 1-17.

Howell, C., McKenzie, J., & Chataika, T. (2018). Building Teachers’ Capacity for Inclusive Education in South Africa and Zimbabwe through CPD. Continuing Professional Teacher Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Improving Teaching and Learning, 127.

McKenzie, J., & Chataika, T. (2018). Supporting Families in Raising Disabled Children to Enhance African Child Development. In K. Runswick-Cole, T. Curran, & K. Liddiard (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies (pp. 315-332), London: Palgrave

McKenzie, J., & Ohajunwa, C. O. (2017). Understanding disability in Nigeria: a commentary on “Country profile: intellectual and developmental disability in Nigeria. Tizard Learning Disability Review, 22(2), 94-98.

Opoku, M. P., Mprah, W. K., Mckenzie, J., Sakah, B. N., & Badu, E. (2017). Lives of persons with disabilities in Cameroon after CRPD: voices of persons with disabilities in the Buea Municipality in Cameroon. International Journal on Disability and Human Development, 16(1), 67-75.

McKenzie, J. A., Pillay, S. G., Duvenhage, C. M., Du Plessis, E., & Jelsma, J. M. (2017). Implementation of Educational Provision for Children with Severe to Profound Intellectual Disability in the Western Cape: From Rights to Reality. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 1-16.

Opoku, M. P., Agbenyega, J., F, J., Mprah, W. K., McKenzie, J., & Badu, E. (2017). Decade of inclusive education in Ghana: perspectives of educators. Journal of Social Inclusion, 8(1), 4-20. http://doi.org/10.36251/josi.114

Peta, C., McKenzie, J., Kathard, H., & Africa, A. (2017). We are not asexual beings: disabled women in Zimbabwe talk about their active sexuality. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 1-15.

Duncan, M., McKenzie, J., Ferguson, G., & Petersen, L. (2017). Disability and rehabilitation in primary health care. In V. Zweigenthal, T. Puone, L. Reynolds et al (Eds.). Primary Health Care: Fresh Perspectives. Pearson Prentice Hall: Cape Town     

McKenzie, J., Loebenstein, H., & Taylor, C. (2017). Increasing parental recognition and engagement. In P. Engelbrecht & L. Green (Eds). Responding to the challenges of inclusive education in southern Africa (pp. 186-200), Pretoria 2nd Ed: Van Schaik    

Chataika, T. & McKenzie, J. A. (2016). Global institutions and their engagement with disability mainstreaming in the south: Development and (dis) connections. In Disability in the Global South: The Critical Handbook (pp. 423-436). Springer, Cham.    

Wilson, N. J., McKenzie, J., & Kahonde, C. (2016). Commentary on “The experiences and needs of mothers supporting young adolescents with intellectual disabilities through puberty and emerging sexuality”. (O'Neill, Lima, Thomson Bowe, & Newall, 2015). Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 3(1), 48-53.

Spangenberg, K., Van Rensburg, W., Kilian, E., Vorster, H., Corten, L., McKenzie, J., & Jelsma, J. (2016). The validation of an educational database for children with profound intellectual disabilities. African Journal of Disability, 5(1), 1-11.

McKenzie, J. A. (2016). An exploration of an ethics of care in relation to people with intellectual disability and their family caregivers in the Cape Town metropole in South Africa. ALTER-European Journal of Disability Research, 10(1), 67-78.

McKenzie, J., & McConkey, R. (2016). Caring for adults with intellectual disability: The perspectives of family carers in South Africa. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 29(6), 531-541.

Ohajunwa, C., Mckenzie, J., & Lorenzo, T. (2015). Enabling disability inclusive practices within the University of Cape Town curriculum: A case study. African Journal of Disability, 4(1), 8-pages.

McKenzie, J., & Adnams, C. (2014). South African adults with intellectual disability speak about residential options. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27(4).

Kahonde, C. & McKenzie, J. (2014). Family caregivers’ responses to sexuality and relationship support needs of young adults with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27(4).

McKenzie, J., Mji, G., Gcaza, S. (2014). With or without us? An audit of disability research in the southern African region. African Journal on Disability, 3(2). doi: 10.4102/ajod.v3i2.76

Watermeyer, B. & McKenzie, J. A. (2014). Mothers of disabled children: in mourning or on the march? Journal of Social Work Practice, 1-12. doi: 10.1080/02650533.2014.889103