Just me, a disabled scholar, spending another night crying after learning that there are no meaningful remote options for yet another conference I was accepted to. How can I make it in academia when you slam every single door right in my fucking face? 1/8
I am so tired. Everyone wants my intellectual labor. Med schools want me to present on anti-ableist practice, but they won't build disability into their coursework or hire disabled people to design ethical coursework. 2/8
Conferences loooove panels on "disability" or "diversity" but organizers won't actually help disabled scholars network or present their research outside of in-person events. 3/8
The job market loves a disabled diversity hire, but only when they've produced more than their peers and have proven that their disability "doesn't hold them back." 4/8
Non-disabled profs will happily send disabled students to the DAC for support. And then assume their job is done bc they made a connection. Your job isn't done. You need to keep supporting disabled academics. 5/8
Students love my coursework, and ask that more disability studies coursework be embedded into mainstream curriculum (especially programs like "Special Education") but schools won't establish disability studies programs. 6/8
I don't know how to stay here doing this when I have so few allies, and those allies are all disabled people with the least amount of resources. How many allies can I watch fail to make it? And how frequently can I sit back and take hit after hit? 7/8
I'm mourning every single day for what I could be and the career I could have if fellow academics just fucking followed the ADA and built basic access measures into Higher Ed. 8/8 #AcademicChatter#DisabilityTwitter#AcademicTwitter
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Looking over all the access measure at #DisGaze22 and imagining what it would be like to apply for a conference and just not need to request accommodations, because meaningful access measures were already planned, by design, into the conference from it's outset. 1/3
There are many many moments where I feel like I cannot safely stay in academia. The rampant ableism makes me feel distanced in so, so many spaces. But scholars like @jaivirdi and conferences like #DisGaze22 give me hope. 2/3
Maybe colleagues can plan for me to be here. Maybe it doesn't have to be me performing access labor every single moment I engage with the academy. Maybe we can normalize best practices by just listening and following models set by disabled scholars. 3/3 #AcademicChatter
All the time, whenever I ask or complain about access issues, I am framed as "angry" or "excessive" or "bitter" and very often "a bitch." And I know all these things are said behind my back, because it's not hard to find out from friends and acquaintances. 1/6
At the same time, I'm almost always told that if I want to see a change in policies, I need to give my time for free to consult on access issues. And this of course almost always comes from someone with more power, privilege, and security than I have. 2/6
When you tell me I need to build change, and yet you give me no resources to do so, this is what I hear:
- it's not worth my time to learn accessible event planning
- this person is attacking me but it's not my fault things are inaccessible
- they should fix it for me 3/6
If you're a non-disabled scholar in #DisabilityStudies and you're
- participation in in-person only conferencing
- teaching only in person
- going to in-person networking events 1/4
You have to think about how you're benefitting (in terms of prestige, finances, job security) from career spaces that are inaccessible to most disabled academics right now. How are we supposed to tell our own stories when we aren't even in the room? 2/4
I'm so tired of looking around and watching as disabled faculty/students/staff bring up access issues. And the watching supposed "allies" remain silent when witnessing and benefitting directly from inaccessible spaces and events. 3/4
Working WITH disabled people - as an educator, a medical professional, etc. - does not mean you understand the needs of disabled people. I'm really tired of people substituting proximity for lived experience. They're not the same. 1/5
Disabled people may agree with you, may thank you, they might give you good feedback, they might say they loved working with you. And all of those comments might be false. Because there is a power dynamic here. 2/5
If you're in control of someone's access, health, and accommodations, you're in control of their quality of life. Disabled people know that if they say something negative, or disagree, or refuse to pander, they might be framed as noncompliant or denied the care they need. 3/5
Disabled scholars can't consult on access and accessibility in higher ed if they're constantly being forced out of the academy. We can't do this work without employment or security. And all the employment standards are based on inaccessible metrics we can't hit. 1/6
How are we supposed to present our latest work when conferences are inaccessible? How are we supposed to find coauthors or collaborators if networking events are not planned with accessibility in mind? 2/6
How are we supposed to publish on the same schedule as our non-disabled peers when we're wrangling with our health situations, and fighting for accommodations at work, and providing tons of unpaid and unrecognized consulting work to make the uni more accessible? 3/6
Academic ableism is so wildly pervasive it is built into everything in the academy. And yet, once again, I've been asked to a meeting to describe its direct impacts and offer solutions. Ones that I know admin will not take. 1/5
Please stop asking disabled students/staff/faculty what is ableist. Everything is ableist. You could look at any uni policy and it would be correct to assume it's ableist. I shouldn't need to point them all out. That means you're not really looking. 2/5
I'm tired of meeting admin at the negotiation table with recommendations, notes, presentations, and data. Just to be told that this is just a discussion so they can understand better. 3/5