Thread by @geomechCooke

Reference letter season is upon us and you may be wondering how to approach writing about the disabilities of students and colleagues who you are recommending. I’ve been on both sides of the desk and offer some suggestions and resources in this 🧵. 1/11 #AcademicAbleism

Disclosure: You should never disclose someone’s disability without their approval. Asking them about this need not be awkward if you are prepared to explain why you think mentioning their disability in your letter would be beneficial. 2/11

The answer to that last question is not “they like to see disability for diversity”. Don’t kid yourself! Ableism is everywhere. Admissions and hiring committees are 4 times more likely to admit/hire an abled person.3/11

When explaining why you want to mention their disability, share the character traits that you want to emphasize. Are they a problem solver? Do they show resilience? Are they great self-advocates? 4/11

Please don’t say that folks ‘overcome’ their disability!!! This trope is harmful. We live with our disabilities, we can’t erase them. For example, we don’t say that 1st gen college students overcome their families. Why say this about disability? 5/11

Instead, you can acknowledge that the disabled person faces disadvantages with exceptional skill & self advocacy. This phrasing acknowledges that navigating life with a disability requires constant effort and draws attention to valuable skills! 6/11

Ask how they describe their disability. Do they use person-first or disability first language? Some folks prefer medical based terms like ‘hearing impaired’ while others prefer cultural based terms like Deaf (with a capital D). Don’t guess. 7/11

Some folks may not want you to describe them as disabled but might prefer other labels such as neurodiverse, having chronic illness etc. If they use accommodations, you must check to see if they are OK with you disclosing their accommodations in the letter 8/11

Also ask them what they would like for you to emphasize in your letter. Unless they say so, avoid writing “Despite her disability…” or “You would never know that he has a disability”. These phrases have strong ableist undertones. 9/11

In your conversations they may say that they do not want you disclosing their disability because they don’t want to disclose or they plan to disclose in some other way. Respect their wishes. 10/11
#AcademicAbleism

Ending this long thread here with some resources. If you know of others please share! I was surprised how little is out there to guide letter writers. 11/11
jstor.org/stable/25655948
beloit.edu/offices/leads/…
google.com/search?q=refer…