Purpose Sri Lanka has been making significant improvements over the years to provide equal educational opportunities for all children at all levels and all stages of education after the progressive introduction of free education constitutions in the universal Free Education Policy in 1945 and the Compulsory Education Policy in 1998.  By incorporating upgraded disability inclusion in the National Disability Policy for Sri Lanka by prohibiting discrimination against students with special needs and disabilities. Currently, educational institutions worldwide are said to be using blended learning methods to provide continuing education to students as an alternative to emergency closures, natural disasters, lockdowns, new normal, and socio-economic crises. Especially in Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis situation, blended learning continues to be an alternative way to manage the cost of stationery, travel expenses, accommodation facilities at unreasonable prices, and even food and supplies excessive costs. As higher education is almost online, students with special needs experiencing this are life-threatening and unable to continue their higher education. Thus, the current study is designed to fill this gap by exploring students’ concerns about actual practices and the requirements that contribute to online and blended learning.

Design/methodology/approach - This study explores learning platforms and academic support systems related to online learning and twenty-five students with special needs in higher education institutions in Sri Lanka are considered as participants of this study through a purposive sampling method. Experiences and opinions of students with special needs were recorded and analyzed with the support of coding.

Findings - Sri Lanka’s current terrible economic and social crisis has forced the higher education system to shift to an online learning mode of higher education, at least to some extent. Exams and requirements for higher education have eroded the confidence of students with special needs. Institutions of higher education struggle to transform students into efficient and active learners through online instruction, and this study explores how institutions of higher education fail to consider students with special needs. With the immediate shift from traditional to remote during the pandemic and the continuation of blended learning during the crisis, special needs students’ experience and satisfaction with the online learning part of blended learning are still questionable. The study reveals a lack of academic support systems for students with special needs, need for academic support, growing disparities in online system access, social isolation, insufficient training with the concern of special needs, extra time needs, self-guided design of curriculum, not focused special education, lack of technology tool awareness for special needs students and unawareness of multiple disabilities.

Practical implications – This study suggests several implications for higher educational institutions. For example, creating a mentoring mechanism for the academic support system at higher education institutions, drawing a new curriculum with special guidelines, and awareness sessions to introduce new tools, and introducing special courses to manage fully online mode sessions, collaborative sessions, surveys, and interviewing continued feedback system can help students with special needs overcome their feelings of isolation, loneliness, and unable to retrain.

Social implications - This study contributes to addressing the educational experience outcomes of students with special needs and the responsibilities of parents and communities related to learning in an online learning environment for students with special needs in society.

Originality/value – This is the initial study of the actual experience of special needs students as a qualitative research study in a higher education setting.

Keywords - Blended learning, Higher education system, Online learning, Sri Lanka, Students with special needs, Traditional Learning.