Toward an Anti-Ableist Academy Conference Virtual Sessions

In Fall 2023, the Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services (SAAS) conducted a survey of all the students connected with the unit. In this presentation, Saumya Gupta, the SAAS Project Coordinator, will discuss some themes and quotes in the student responses, and provide recommendations for improving accessibility in the learning environments. The responses reveal that there is a lot of work to be done to improve the experiences of students with disabilities, and that work goes beyond accommodations alone.

To become ‘dis-fabled’ requires unlearning outdated models of disability in order to tell real, intersectional stories (not tired fables) that are truer, safer, and ultimately more interesting. When we tell these stories in our everyday lives, we normalize disability as a complex yet natural aspect of human variance. We also make room for others to show up authentically. In higher education, this process can facilitate deeper learning and greater overall achievement, which are added benefits—but not the ultimate purposes—behind becoming dis-fabled.

This presentation demonstrates practical applications of crip theory in the classroom with the aim of cultivating a radically inclusive and accessible course environment. Seated at the intersection of queer theory and disability studies, crip theory positions itself as a critique of compulsory able-bodiedness and an interrogation of the compulsory systems which enforce upon students the expectations of a normatively abled body. Through examples from my own English 125 course syllabus, I will explore how crip theory can be used in the classroom to resist these compulsory systems, moving beyond individual accommodations toward redesigning the fundamental structure of our academic spaces.

With the advent of graphic medicine and indie publishing, disability representation in comics has moved beyond Professor X, Oracle, Daredevil, and Doc Ock into the realm of #OwnVoices and #NothingAboutUs. People are telling their own stories about their own complicated messy intersectional lives with lived experiences that include a diversity of experiences — adaptive sports, autism, anxiety, bipolar, diabetes, epilepsy, spina bifida, wheelchair life, and much more. What do these small press and independently published disability comics look like, and how do you find them? How do they show disability culture and community? Are they just for kids? (Spoiler: NO! But some are.) Are they being used in academia? (Spoiler: YES! And in therapy, too!) These questions and more will be answered in this presentation.