Disability In Higher Education Investigating Identity Stigma And Disclosure Amongst Academics

Higher Education presents significant challenges for disabled faculty. This book highlights the structural barriers that create challenges for faculty and demonstrates ways in which we can improve on current practice. Staff face a competitive environment which is increasingly characterised by long working hours and the use of standardised metrics to monitor and evaluate performance. The author underlines this issue as well as covering a range of subjects including the stigma associated with disability, workplace discrimination, the decision to disclose a disability, and access to workplace accommodations. The book: •Amplifies the voices and experiences of disabled faculty •Examines the representation of disability and how this affects both disabled and non-disabled audiences •Provides a range of personal accounts of visible and invisible disabilities by those working in Higher Education •Argues for changes to current practice through advice, support and guidance for those impacted by disability •Features a chapter which addresses the structural and operational issues that systematically disadvantage disabled academics The book aims to inform and advise those interested in disability within Higher Education. It is of relevance, not only to those who identify as disabled, but also to senior management, policy makers and students of disability studies or education. “Gayle Brewer's Disability in Higher Education is a clear, concise, accessible yet detailed exploration of the realities of disability in the Academy.” Nancy Hansen, Professor, Director Disability Studies, University of Manitoba, Canada “I am proud to endorse Dr Brewer’s much-anticipated work on Disability in Higher Education. This book exposes the barriers, stigma and discrimination that disabled academics face daily, overtly and covertly, in a profession we are passionate about”. Dr Hamied Haroon, Chair, National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN) Gayle Brewer is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Liverpool, UK. Her research interests focus on personality and romantic relationships, and she also conducts research addressing education and the student experience.

"Disability is not always central to claims about diversity and inclusion in higher education, but should be. This collection reveals the pervasiveness of disability issues and considerations within many higher education populations and settings, from classrooms to physical environments to policy impacts on students, faculty, administrators, and staff. While disclosing one's disability and identifying shared experiences can engender moments of solidarity, the situation is always complicated by the intersecting factors of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. The contributors to Negotiating Disability use disclosure as a statrting point to explore how disability is named, identified, claimed, and negotiated within higher education settings. The essays reflect a broad set of scholarly approaches (e.g., interviews with disabled students and analyses of statistical data) and research interests (e.g., implications for future policy and change, representations of disability in popular culture, literature, and media.)". --Cover.

This book explores the PhD experience as never before and provides a “survival guide” for current and prospective PhD students. The book investigates why mental health issues are so common among the postgraduate population, going beyond the statistics, looking at lived experience of both the author and as well as current PhD students, who have found balancing mental wellness with the PhD endeavour challenging. The author discusses tips and tricks she wished she had known at the start of her PhD process for managing mental health, such as managing imposter feelings, prioritising workload, and self-care strategies to help others throughout their own journey. The book goes beyond typical mental health discussions (where the focus for improving mental health is placed on PhD students to become “more resilient”) and explores some of the often unspoken environmental factors that can impact mental health. These include the PhD student-supervisor relationship, the pressure to publish, and deep systemic problems in academia, such as racism, bullying and harassment. Finally, the book is a call to action, providing tangible improvements from the author’s perspective that university institutions can make to ensure that academia is a place for all to thrive.

Create campuses inclusive and supportive of disabled students, staff, and faculty Disability in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach examines how disability is conceptualized in higher education and ways in which students, faculty, and staff with disabilities are viewed and served on college campuses. Drawing on multiple theoretical frameworks, research, and experience creating inclusive campuses, this text offers a new framework for understanding disability using a social justice lens. Many institutions focus solely on legal access and accommodation, enabling a system of exclusion and oppression. However, using principles of universal design, social justice, and other inclusive practices, campus environments can be transformed into more inclusive and equitable settings for all constituents. The authors consider the experiences of students, faculty, and staff with disabilities and offer strategies for addressing ableism within a variety of settings, including classrooms, residence halls, admissions and orientation, student organizations, career development, and counseling. They also expand traditional student affairs understandings of disability issues by including chapters on technology, law, theory, and disability services. Using social justice principles, the discussion spans the entire college experience of individuals with disabilities, and avoids any single-issue focus such as physical accessibility or classroom accommodations. The book will help readers: Consider issues in addition to access and accommodation Use principles of universal design to benefit students and employees in academic, cocurricular, and employment settings Understand how disability interacts with multiple aspects of identity and experience. Despite their best intentions, college personnel frequently approach disability from the singular perspective of access to the exclusion of other important issues. This book provides strategies for addressing ableism in the assumptions, policies and practices, organizational structures, attitudes, and physical structures of higher education.

Rather than embracing difference as a reflection of wider society, academic ecosystems seek to normalise and homogenise ways of working and of being a researcher. As a consequence, ableism in academia is endemic. However, to date no attempt has been made to theorise experiences of ableism in academia. Ableism in Academia provides an interdisciplinary outlook on ableism that is currently missing. Through reporting research data and exploring personal experiences, the contributors theorise and conceptualise what it means to be/work outside the stereotypical norm. The volume brings together a range of perspectives, including feminism, post-structuralism, such as Derridean and Foucauldian theory, crip theory and disability theory, and draw on the width and breadth of a number of related disciplines. Contributors use technicism, leadership, social justice theories and theories of embodiment to raise awareness and increase understanding of the marginalised; that is those academics who are not perfect. These theories are placed in the context of neoliberal academia, which is distant from the privileged and romanticised versions that exist in the public and internalised imaginations of academics, and used to interrogate aspects of identity, aspects of how disability is performed, and to argue that ableism is not just a disability issue. This timely collection of chapters will be of interest to researchers in Disability Studies, Higher Education Studies and Sociology, and to those researching the relationship between theory and personal experience across the Social Sciences.

Addressing disability not as a form of student impairment—as it is typically perceived at the postsecondary level—but rather as an important dimension of student diversity and identity, this book explores how disability can be more effectively incorporated into college environments. Chapters propose new perspectives, empirical research, and case studies to provide the necessary foundation for understanding the role of disability within campus climate and integrating students with disabilities into academic and social settings. Contextualizing disability through the lens of intersectionality, Disability as Diversity in Higher Education illustrates how higher education institutions can use policies and practices to enhance inclusion and student success.

Places notions of disability at the center of higher education and argues that inclusiveness allows for a better education for everyone

Disability Services and Disability Studies in Higher Education considers how the two fields of disability studies and disability services in institutions of higher education impact each other. Disability Studies is centered in the classroom, an interdisciplinary field that teaches about the social contexts of disability, while Disability Services works outside the classroom, making sure students with disabilities are able to access classroom spaces and educational material. Oslund explores the effect of the services on the larger societies in which they are located, students who encounter the respective fields, and those who self-identify as disabled or have an identity of disability posited on them by the society in which they live.