Keabetswe Mogotlhoane is one of many thousands of undergraduate University of Pretoria (UP) students – she is just smarter and perhaps a tad more focused and determined than most.

Mogotlhoane, a BA Psychology student, is smarter because her results at the end of last year qualified her for the Golden Key International Honour Society, which means she was in the top 15% of her class. And in true Mogotlhoane style, she has since been appointed as Golden Key’s Campus and Community Outreach Director for UP for next year, tasked with organising events and increasing campus awareness of the society.

And she is a tad more focused and determined than many others, because she is undeterred by the fact that her sole means of getting herself from point A to point B is a metal walking frame. “I've been using one since I was six years old,” she says.

On campus, however, you’re unlikely to see her with her frame, because she catches a campus bus outside her residence in Arcadia every morning, and has then perfected her manoeuvres at the Duxbury Road entrance to Hatfield Campus by folding her walking device, whizzing herself through the turnstile, and then making her way to the office in the Old Chemistry Building of what is now known as the Access, Disability and Inclusion Service (ADIS), the former Disability Unit. “It’s my second home,” she says. 

There she dumps her walker, collects one of ADIS’s rechargeable mobility scooters, and happily breezes along to lecture after lecture, using her hands to manipulate the gears and the speed. “I don't have to use my feet, and it so easy to move around campus with it. It’s small, just like me, and has a seat like a chair, and you can sit comfortably.

“It's a huge campus, and it can take 10 minutes to get to a class in another building so ADIS has helped me a lot in terms of making sure I am able to navigate around campus.”

Mogotlhoane says all she wants from others is to be treated like everyone else, “not put in a box, in a separate box. I don't like pity. I am a person who stands on my own ground. I am independent, and I want UP to highlight our independence, that we are capable. We can do anything that we want to. We don't need assistance unless we ask to be assisted.”

She is in control of her life on campus, but UP hasn’t always been such plain sailing for her. She arrived in Pretoria after a year she didn’t enjoy at all at another institution. She had been studying BSc (Life Sciences), which sounds too lab-orientated for the people-loving chatterbox. Plus, this was during the COVID-19 pandemic. So she relished tackling the Bachelor of Oral Hygiene degree in UP’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

Sadly, it didn’t go according to plan. So much so, she seems surprised to realise in retrospect that it was only for about a month.

“I met with a lot of challenges in terms of accessibility,” she says. “They told me that I was the first disabled person to do oral hygiene. So they didn’t know how they could accommodate me, but they would try their level best.

“As time went on, we had to do practicals. The lecturers’ concern was that I don't have fine motor skills. My muscles are weak, and they recommended I should go to an occupational therapist, who did an assessment. I also went to a doctor who diagnosed me. Their reports said I could continue with the course. But the occupational therapist was assessing me based on their equipment and the lecturers said the occupational therapist needed to come to the hospital to see how I work and navigate, and it was a stressful event, to be honest.”

Mogotlhoane said she struggled. She had to sit in a certain position to work on a patient’s mouth. “So if I couldn't sit in that position required of me, it meant I could hurt myself or the patient.” This was complicated further by her feet not being able to touch the complete surface of the dentist’s chair to move it.

“The truth hurts, and I couldn't accept the situation I was in, because, truly speaking, I loved oral hygiene. But the circumstances did not let me do it.”

The department called her family in for a meeting and gave her two options: “… a gap year to see an occupation therapist for rehabilitation to strengthen my muscles. Or they will help me to get into any course I would like.” She chose the second.

“I didn't want anything that required me to strain my feet, my physical body. So I chose psychology. And anyway, I like communicating with people. They used to tell me at the clinic that I'm very good with patients and talk to them as if I’ve known them for months.”

It was clearly a good choice. Now she loves every second of her BA studies, cannot wait to be a clinical psychologist, and her top marks show her hard work and passion is paying off.

“I'm planning to create an advocacy organisation focusing on people with disabilities, helping them reach their potential, being a voice for them, and making sure they have quality education, just like everyone else. I also want to emphasise how important it is for disabled people to be able to speak about their emotions, because I know a lot of them just bottle their emotions, thinking, ‘Oh, nobody will understand me. Nobody will get what I go through’. So I want to break that barrier.”

Until she starts her own organisation, she is active in the UP student structure VITA – Valuing Inclusivity, Transformation and Awareness – as its Deputy Secretary. She is also the face of the PIT’OM H&H Disability Unit, started in 2022 to help disabled people apply for tertiary studies.

“I wish other students knew that I'm a fun person. I am very talkative. I like being around people. I wish they knew that I am a motivated person, because they think, ‘Oh, disabled people, they’re not really motivated. I wish they knew that I am very smart, and whatever I put my mind to, I tell myself, ‘I'm gonna do it’. I have high expectations, and I always want to achieve those expectations,” she says.

She credits her teachers at Mmametlhake Secondary School in Bamokgoko, Mpumalanga, and in particular her maths teacher, Mpho Matlhabegoane, for motivating her. “They made sure I was always at my best, and whenever I reached a milestone, they would celebrate.”

But there is also a very special person in her life who drives her.

“I have a twin sister. She’s the one who motivates me to do better, because I can see she is capable. So it means that I am also capable. She's not disabled, and she is studying physio at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.”

Keabetswe and Kabelo, who are identical, celebrated their 21^st birthday earlier this year and their joint Instagram account shows them confident and ready to face the world, no matter what it presents.