Thread by @DisInHigherEd

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Good morning/afternoon/evening! My name is Linda (she/they)& I'm part of the Disabled in Higher Ed team who are organising Disabled Empowerment in Higher Education Month! #DEHEM
I am going to 'takeover' the account today to talk about the month ahead & share some of my story

So as I said my name is Linda and I am non-binary so I use she/her and they/them pronouns.

I have multiple invisible disabilities including autism, ADHD and dyslexia. My journey through Higher Ed has been a little bit turbulent as I wasn't diagnosed until my late teens/early 20s

I am currently doing a Master of Science (by research) in Food Science at Univerity College Cork (Ireland) in conjunction with Teagasc (Irish Government Authority of Food and Agriculture Research) as a Teagasc Walsh Scholar. (they funding so what they say is my full title is)

But to be honest, before I got diagnosed, I never would have been able to get to this position as I was kind of flailing about the place, wondering why everyone else could get their shit together so much quicker than I could?

Why wasn't I diagnosed before this? 2 main reasons:
1. Ableism (by my parents)
2. Ableism (by society)

I had always, from a young age been 'different' but as I found out recently, my parent took an 'if we pretend it's not there, it'll just go away' approach to any issues I had.

And after a certain age, society deemed I was 'too smart' to have any kind of disability. I was obviously just lazy and didn't want to succeed.

I have also heard similar phrases from many other people regardless of if they've been diagnosed as neurodivergent/neurodiverse or not

It took me a long time to process my diagnoses when I did eventually get them and what that meant for my life. And honestly, I was fine with it after tackling my internalised ableism. However, many people around me weren't. People I'd known for years in a professional capacity.

Suddenly did not trust me anymore? Even though it was fine for me to do things for/with them last week, I was suddenly not good enough anymore?

Like ???? And I just really didn't get this.

I mean... apparently to a lot of people 'I've diagnosed with autism means that I was suddenly not intelligent or able to do work anymore?

Which for a bunch of scientists is very unanalytical thinking...

Anyway... the fact of the matter is that all that thinking is just ableism and absolutely nothing else.

Do I work a bit differently to everyone else? Yes
Do I sort of do my own thing? Yes
But do I still get the work I need to do done? Yes

When we talk about research in particular - do I have (some) amazing ideas that no one else has even considered? Yes

But also an important point - should this matter in terms of my life being considered valid and worthy? F**** NO

Should I need to make this point that disabled people are an asset for them to get 'worthiness' in abled peoples minds? NO

But do I have to? Apparently...

I've been asked by many people, why I choose to be open about my disabilities because I could 'just go unnoticed' as I have invisible disabilities.

I absolutely refuse to be ashamed of who I am.

But also *extremely* important!

Just because I am open about my disabilities doesn't mean anyone else has to be!

Disclosing disability in any circumstance is a personal thing & people deserve to do so if & when they decide to. Society is massively ableist & anti-disability.

One reason I decided to become more outspoken as a disability advocate & join this movement is that in society & academia, disabilities can be seen as a childhood thing & often they don't last past graduation. Because you apparently stop being disabled after your degrees...

Many disabled people have to fight to get any research accommodations at all and in higher ed/academia it is the always disabled persons 'problem' to sort everything they need and nearly beg for things that are need and are legally entitled to.....

This is a problem. Because society is not built for disabled people. Often they are seen as a liability/an inconvenience but it is also our problem to sort everything out & justify why we need things to do our damn jobs & also justify to ables why we should be valued as a person?

And yet it is somehow optional in some universities for professors to make their work accessible?

It is optional to make sure that every student can access your content or take part in labs? How does this make sense?