Thread by @DisInHigherEd

And for my next trick... Let's talk about what we mean by higher ed. I attended an elite 😬 liberal arts college for undergrad, and I'm doing my PhD at a top-tier 😬 research institution, but I teach at a low-barrier, 2-year institution.

I doubt any of these institutions do disability as well as they could/should, but a lot of our conversations about disability in higher ed overlook low-barrier institutions. I want to dig into that a bit.

I haven't been teaching long enough to gauge how the institution itself supports disabled students, faculty, and staff, but from the perspective of an instructor: I appreciate being in an environment that recognizes students have lives beyond the classroom.

The emphasis on teaching and the awareness that students have jobs, families, financial pressures, etc... and that they may be coming into the college at very different points in their lives and careers has given me a lot of latitude in terms accessibly structuring my course.

And I mean accessibly structuring my course for disabled students (with or without formal accommodations), for myself as a disabled instructor, and for students whose other responsibilities mean that accessibility benefits their learning as well -- not to mention the COVID stuff.

There are very few stats on disabled students (or faculty) in higher ed, but low-barrier institutions tend to average a higher percentage of disabled students than other types of academic institutions.

I would love to know: is this because of barriers to entry? Financial barriers (disability is expensive and disabled folks have lower incomes on average)? Better institutional supports for students? Greater flexibility? The emphasis on pedagogy and student learning?

A large percentage of students from my institution transfer to a four-year college or university at the end of their two years, so I wonder: how can low-barrier institutions better prepare disabled students to make that transition?

Talking to other disabled academics, I've also heard that low-barrier institutions can be a great place to work (i.e. more open to hiring and accommodating disabled faculty). Although I am new to the position, I've certainly felt well supported by my colleagues thus far.

I disclosed in my interview, and I talk openly about disability. I've appreciated colleagues' interest in my suggestions about accessibility in the classroom (such as how to caption PowerPoints).

If/when I require more supports, I hope that this will continue to be the case.

(As an aside: I've been gratified to hear from a fellow instructor that, thanks to my course, their students are using disability to critically analyze concepts in their classes now as well!)

Lastly, I think about how low-barrier institutions can help us rethink the "higher" in higher education. @JayDolmage has written about higher ed as inherently stratifying and ableist. Maybe it's time to think about higher ed not as "better ed" but as higher-barrier ed.

What do you think? Do you have any experiences with low-barrier institutions? What could these schools do better to support disabled students, instructors, and staff? What can 4-year colleges and universities learn from low-barrier institutions?