This qualitative study considers the experiences of three small cohorts of students whose disability has affected their walking, as they attempted to secure places on courses in higher education. It is based on a series of interviews with the students and with staff at their further education college who were responsible for applications procedures. Further information was obtained from a variety of documentary sources - confidential references, communications from the higher education institutions, etc. In order to place the experiences in context, the process is also examined from the perspective of higher education institutions. The approach adopted is to use case studies of a university and a polytechnic. The data again derives from interviews and from analysis of documentary evidence. The third dimension of the study concerns change both in relation to the spread of good practice and also the implications for people with disabilities of the new government policies affecting higher education. The focus is on the part played by Skill: The National Bureau for Students with Disabilities and its efforts to safeguard and improve provision. The little evidence currently available suggests that people with disabilities encounter negative discrimination when they try to enter higher education. The nature of this, how it operates both in terms of contacts with individual applicants and in the determination of policies within institutions, has not been investigated previously. This study can be viewed as a contribution to debates about equality of opportunity and about civil rights. More recently, there has been increased concern about the widening of access to higher education. This investigation is timely and relevant to this development.