Nicole Lee Schroeder, PhD Profile picture
Sep 29, 2022 10 tweets 3 min read Read on X
I'm engaging in a lot of encounters lately where people see me masked and ask "oh should I grab a mask?" And I know it comes from a good place, but it can be really exhausting. Why? Let's talk about access labor. 1/10
Time and time again disabled people have to ask permission to be in the same spaces as non-disabled people. We need to ask for access to the building, we need to ask for layouts, we need to ask for captioning, we need to ask for interpreters. 2/10
I am constantly asking for permission to simply get into the room. And now let's compound that with masking. I'll use my own access needs as an example here. Just to get into the office to work I have to ask for so many things. 3/10
I have to ask for an entrance with automatic doors. I have to make sure the elevator is working. When it's not I have to ask for a fix. I have to ask for internal doors I can open. And when depressurized doors get "fixed" by unknowing maintenance teams I have to ask again. 4/10
I have to ask for a desk and chair because I'm expected to stand to teach and I can't do that for 3 hour seminars. I have to ask for captions in virtual meetings because I struggle with processing sometimes. I have to ask for work from home some days. 5/10
I have to ask for permission to inhabit the same spaces as my colleagues at least once a day if not more. And I have to ask other people to provide that access all the time. Now imagine if multiple people ask me "oh should I mask up?" 6/10
Every single time I have to gain the courage to say "yes please." And I am brave but it takes a LOT of courage and privilege to ask for access all the time. It also takes a lot of energy and labor. Some days I don't have it in me to ask permission for safety and security. 7/10
Access labor cannot ONLY be done by disabled people. We need you to alt text images, automatically turn on captions, host virtual/hybrid events that ENGAGE us. We need you to plan for us so we don't have to ask again and again for permission to inhabit the same space. 8/10
I want to be able to be less brave. I want to rest. I want to enter spaces where I don't need to ask, because someone has already taken into account universal design, and maybe even remembered my access needs. 9/10
I want academics to think about their complicity in access labor issues. Are you building access? For whom? Are you relying on someone to ask for access? Are you framing it as a favor? Are you unknowingly making someone feel shame/guilt? 10/10 #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

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More from @Nicole_Lee_Sch

Jul 23
In the 1810s, economists and govt officials in Europe and the US conducted a ton of poverty investigations. They concluded that poor people were poor because they were just lazy immoral alcoholics. Officials recommended mass incarceration. 1/9
Officials complained that "foreigners" were overcrowding American hospitals, that pension recipients were "faking" disability, and that everyone out of work receiving charity should be institutionalized and forced to work by the govt. 2/9
Officials argued that people needed to feel the "fear" and "shame" of poverty (see Philly report linked below) to actually change. Officials wanted to design a system where welfare was so terrible that ppl would do anything to avoid asking the govt for help. 3/9
Read 9 tweets
Jul 23
Poverty history is wild bc youll get:

Historian #1: wealthy ppl got upset they had to pay taxes for poor relief, so they built the carceral state and passed laws to cut relief. This was bad for poor people. Costs went down bc of threats of incarceration. 1/5
Historian #2: the city was plagued with high poverty rates, so the govt passed laws to regulate relief. Costs went down bc the city hired more govt officials to screen applicants and made "better" choices about who "deserved" care. This was good. 2/5
I google these people.

#1 - history prof, multiple teaching awards, wrote extensively on childhood, poverty, crime, family

#2 - econ prof who then worked in NYC as an economist 3/5
Read 6 tweets
Jul 22
Western medicine is designed to react rather than prevent, which is why so many patients are discarded by it. Even though we talk about utilitarian ethics in emergency situations, the framrwork is behind all forms of care. And it all ties back to capitalism. 1/8
An acute issue, with clear therapeutics? This implies a high ROI - its worth it for the system to fix you. You might go back to school/work/"productivity" which js what capitalism wants. A chronic issue, or one without clear therapeutics? That means a lower ROI. 2/8
I think I experienced this most acutely when I was dealing with #MCAS and lost most foods. I continually went into anaphylaxis. Yet allergists told me to just keep using epi, going to ER, and warned me against limiting my diet. 3/8
Read 8 tweets
Jul 15
Its finally here! Feels SO good to finally see it in print. Many thanks to the editors who handled this book with such care, and the other contributors who challenged me to think about my own ethical commitments throughout this process. It was a dream to work with yall! 1/5 A woman sits with a book in her lap. The book cover is bright blue, with a white title that reads "Do Less Harm" in white. Across the cover, the word "Harm" is reprinted multiple times in black, with a red strikethrough across the word. The book is edited by Courtney E. Thompson and Kylie M. Smith
My chapter on "Accessibility" is an ode to every disabled scholar who's been barred from the academy because of ableism. It's also a love letter to those who continue to take COVID precautions, which is a critical component in fostering access for all people. 2/5 A book is flipped open to a particular essay. The title of the piece is "Accessibility" and the author is Nicole Lee Schroeder. You can faintly make out the first paragraph, which reads "In 2020, the world was disabled by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We shifted to remote modalities and collectively prioritized the sanctity of life over the status quo. Friends, family, colleagues, and students navigated a disabled world alongside me. For the first time in my life, I had remote access to research, teaching, and networking. I hoped that we would retain access gains, especially those...
No one should be forced to choose between access or employment. No one should have to hide their disability. And disabled people should benefit from research that depends on our histories, our narratives, and our bodyminds. 3/5
Read 6 tweets
Jul 8
Today is my 10-year brain surgery anniversary! A decade ago, I was under the knife getting a Chiari decompression surgery and a fusion of C1-C2. At the time I had daily debilitating headaches, struggled to stay upright, and had lost all sense of depth perception. 1/17
I was constantly dizzy, I had terrible hand-eye coordination, and I struggled with brain fog. Getting to my senior year undergrad classes, was so incredibly tough. I was either in class, or sleeping, or zoned out in an unending pain flare. 2/17
Before I went into that surgery, thought, I spent years seeking care. I saw three neuros before finding someone who listened. I had an hEDS diagnosis, I had a 10+ year history of POTS, and my mom had a Chiari (for which she had needed surgery too). I was an easy diagnosis. 3/17
Read 17 tweets
May 13
Generative AI kills curiosity, critical reasoning, and is absolutely creating falsified records. This semester I found projects/papers with:
1. Bibliographies with sources that dont exist
2. Fake quotations from REAL books
3. Fake quotations from FAKE books 1/5
Plagiarism includes everything from copying someone elses ideas to copy/pasting existing content to FALSIFYING HISTORICAL RECORDS. These are all heinous, but falsifying records is a major violation in the field of history. 2/5
We talk about historians in the early 1900s who made statements with no proof, with no real source interrogation. We make fun of the men who just blurted their claims as fact as their wives plucked away at the typewriter. 3/5
Read 5 tweets

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