Ratification to realisation: a conceptual case study framework for analysing disability rights implementation in Open Distance Learning institutions

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) creates binding obligations for inclusive education, yet higher education systems continue to exhibit a persistent gap between formal ratification and everyday realisation. This gap is particularly consequential in Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions, where scale, digital mediation, geographic dispersion, and complex governance arrangements shape disability inclusion. Despite growing scholarship on disability, accessibility, and institutional governance in higher education, methodological guidance for institution-focused case studies that assess CRPD implementation through documentary and policy-based evidence remains limited. This article develops a conceptual case study framework for analysing CRPD implementation in ODL contexts. To improve international clarity, the article treats CRPD implementation as part of the broader challenge of accessibility implementation and disability-inclusive governance. The framework integrates a human rights-based approach, the social model of disability, institutional governance theory, and implementation and compliance theory. Analysis is operationalised through three interconnected domains: policy architecture, service delivery systems, and monitoring mechanisms. Methodologically, the framework is informed by Zongozzi’s case study design approach, conceptualised as the interrelationship between antecedents, defining attributes, and consequences. The resulting framework provides an analytical tool for accountability-oriented institutional research and supports analytic generalisation of policy-to-practice dynamics in distance universities.