“Access for the sake of access is not necessarily libratory, but access for the sake of connection, justice, community, love and liberation is. We can use access as a tool to transform the broader conditions we live in, to transform the conditions that created that inaccessibility in the first place. Access can be a tool to challenge ableism, ablebodied supremacy, independence and exclusion. I believe we can do access in liberatory ways that aren’t just about inclusion, diversity and equality; but are rather, in service of justice, liberation and interdependence.” Mia Mingus (2017)
Data – so I can start by sharing some of the answers to some of the questions from some participants. I know we weren’t meant to share our data, but I’m not sure how else to prove I did the studies. I transcribed them from the voice notes to text dictation. And then I listened to them and wrote my take aways from the key points.
I would say this type of qualitative data is harder to visualise or be creative with, so I will comment on that aspect I wish I could have found more visual ways to communicate the findings. And also to make more concluding ideas around what and how these findings can influence specific action research cycles. This really has been about mapping a landscape.
Q -What were the main obstacles you faced that had the biggest impact on your experience as a disabled student?
A1 – “As a disabled student and I was a student at ual, they have this huge policy of like inclusion and diversity and all this kind of public speak around that and I think many universities have their speak, but when it really comes down to it they don’t really make their main curriculum and their main points of educational learning kind of accessible to disabled students or it didn’t it wasn’t for mine, and I think it’s a difficult thing.
I don’t think it’s always possible to do everything and get it for everyone but I just get the sense that they’re not really that interested in really making things accessible. Thinking about even just basic things you know – of like it being a colonial curriculum for a start – it is not accessible.
Then other things around how you engage with the materials. It depends on the teacher right, but I’ve had some really like old fashioned teachers who want you to read really extensive books or extensive chapters. They print out badly scanned copies, and the problem is that it’s not legible. You know just kind of little things that really actually have a big impact when you’re when you’re disabled student, and you know when you have a disability, that impacts you, you have a lot of workload right, you’ve got a lot of work to do, got a lot of things and even if it’s like an hour reading something that’s then going to take you two or three hours will put you off doing it completely that’s just one example but I would say those were kind of the the the obstacles were like everything is kind of geared against people who have disabilities actually and there’s not many and this was when I was a student which was 2015. I just feel like it’s also super dependent on who you have as a teacher so that’s the main thing. Also yeah it’s not really a comfortable environment for you to ask or disclose you know.
For example if they’re handing out this chapter, they don’t ask is that is this OK for everybody are there is there anyone who’s struggling with this or a way to not have to disclose in front of everybody either. So I feel like it just becomes impossible it’s like you just get overlooked and you need to have that confidence to be able to speak up to say that.
Even in situations where I disclosed, I have to know to go to the disability support. There are situations where you’ve disclosed to them (teachers) and they should have that information on record, but it seems like sometimes, the tutors or teachers wouldn’t even know. So there’s kind of like gaps or failures there that things are not reaching or being connected in some way.’
A2 –
“ah OK so I’ll start with what were the main obstacles.
I think to be honest the main obstacle was just not not knowing I was disabled. I just didn’t know that I had dyslexia or ADHD. But I just knew something was wrong. So I think I like struggled a lot with motivation – which is actually an ADHD thing but I guess it disguises anxiety and depression – so someone told me that if you have like mental health struggles (you can get support) and I was on like medication for anxiety, so that’s kind of how I approached it and I had to pay the GP to write me a letter. and then yeah I was able to like get disabled students support. But yes I did it through mental health but looking back I’m like ‘oh it was actually ADHD’
so I guess one of the obstacles was paying for a letter. And I think generally just it was something I had to navigate on my own like it wasn’t really thing that was talked about which is more like a societal thing ’cause it’s like either no you’re disabled and you’re already should know”
Q What obstacles or barriers have you witnessed disabled students navigate?
A3 I’ve just come across students who haven’t been aware that they need support you know, and sometimes I guess with other tutors who maybe are less aware, it wouldn’t be on their radar. Sometimes I kind of I think, I realised things and I tried to check in on them, and that’s my student so you know I don’t know what’s happening with the rest in terms of that. I think things get really overlooked and sometimes it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault, but it is because that student isn’t aware or doesn’t know. So that, even the teachers are not looking out for it with staff members. I’ve seen that happen a lot. I feel I’ve seen that students get caught up in the kind of ableist ideology of like ‘I shouldn’t ask for more time.” or ‘I don’t want people to feel sorry for me,’ to take pity.
(For students) it would seem like a failure to ask for more time, or it’s seen as a negative so they don’t ask for more time in a way that feels empowering or feels like “I deserve that! I’m entitled to that!”
So a lot of the times, even when I’ve kind of offered that to students and try to say
“you know if you can’t give this in on time just let me know and we can, you know, work around that, or hand it in later you know.“
I can, I will, and I will be prepared to do that work for them on their behalf, to kind of negotiate that with the other systems that need be with in institutions.
I found that they were bit reluctant, a bit ashamed. But I think it’s also so tied into English culture as well. I mean English behaviour around avoidance and not being direct and things like that.
So I think I’ve definitely noticed that. I’ve also witnessed kind of barriers to some of this. Some of the things that you need to do when I needed to teach, that we have to do crits for example, and during the crits it means you’re in a group and then one person speaks. And sometimes people who are neuro-diverse/autistic can’t do that and it becomes very hard. Even with me kind of trying to make it as accessible as possible. It becomes very hard for people with those kind of disabilities, to really participate and I’ve seen, I’ve noticed that students just won’t attend and instead of maybe just saying “you know what, this format, this system doesn’t work for me” they just you know, kind of don’t attend or skip or whatever.
I do make it optional you know, and I try and change the crit format and stuff like that, so that it is more accessible, but there’s only so much you can do within a institutional system that already has its its its systems, and in its ways of working.
So I’ve kind of struggled with that as a teacher. As well as students struggling or never trying to navigate those kinds of systems. I think also when you know the colonial education system is like that. Students are having to be in these kind of hierarchical scenes, are looking up to the teachers and tutors as people who know more – so they’re not necessarily able to challenge the systems in place. It’s not like an equilibrium kind of knowledge exchange or sharing everything. It is hierarchical where marginalised students, and then disabled students who are also navigating other kinds of marginalisation, they are less able to speak up to teachers and to name things, to disclose, to challenge and all of those things right.
Q When you experience barriers to learning for students, are there any modulations or social justice practices that you embed to counter institutional frameworks?
A4 I’ve had like times when the tutorial turns into just talking about all this stuff and bringing my own experience into, it which can be quite like vulnerable talking about all this stuff, but getting them to understand the wider like social problem with ableism, to understand they’re not alone in it. That it’s part of a bigger systematic framework.
It is a kind of shame that it only comes out when it’s like student is really struggling, and they really need help at that point. And that it’s like a one to one thing rather than it being embedded in the wider curriculum. I have that done lectures that included disabled artists. And I have tried to bring it into my lectures but it was in no way like encouraged – well maybe I guess it was encouraged but it wasn’t embedded in the curriculum – I think it is that classic lack of intersectionality. Where I think at the moment that there’s a lot more concern about racial equality but like racial representation I guess in the curriculum. And I think everything else often gets left out such as trans issues or disability.
I felt when I was teaching, that I was really trying to do it through this intersectional lens, where I included all of these identities, but I think it becomes really exhausting, because then I know that the other lecturers who don’t have those personal experiences (of disability, race, gender) who might not make that effort. I think that’s yeah, that can be quite like mentally exhausting to think about how do you use your own pedagogy or employ teaching practises
Mingus, M. (2017) Access Intimacy, Interdependence and Disability Justice –https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/access-intimacy-interdependence-and-disability-justice/ accessed 3 Dec 2023