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Cripping Campus: Disabled Student Activism in Higher Education

Learn about disabled student activism and leadership in Disability Cultural Centers in Higher Education at AHEAD National Convention 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. Explore the intersection of disability, diversity, and inclusion, and the emergence of Disability Cultural Centers on college campuses.

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Cripping Campus: Disabled Student Activism in Higher Education

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  1. Cripping Campus: Disabled Student Activism and Leadership in Disability Cultural Centers in Higher Education AHEAD National Convention 2019Boston, Massachusetts Kim Elmore, MA; DREAM Coordinator Jeff Edelstein, MA; University of Massachusetts Amherst Liz Thomson, MA; University of Illinois at Chicago

  2. Accessibility • PowerPoint slides available for download. • Speakers will read all text on slides. • All images are be described and have alt text within presentation. • Slides are numbered. • Speakers will speak at an accessible rate of speed. • PowerPoint is in high contrast and accessible font. • Checked PowerPoint with Microsoft Accessibility Tool.

  3. Land Acknowledgement We acknowledge and honor the land we are on today. We honor the Wampanoag indigenous tribe. Massachusetts comes from a Wampanoag word that means “by the range of the hills.” This is just one way of honoring the people and cultures and to counteract the institutional erasure of the people and culture. From http://www.native-languages.org/massachusetts.htm

  4. Panelist Introductions Kim Elmore • She/her/hers or they/them/theirs • 5’10” white woman with shoulder length wavy brown hair • Disabled, Neurodivergent non-binary woman with chronic illnesses and an Autistic parent • Doctoral candidate in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University; Coordinator of the disabled students organization, DREAM (DREAM website) Jeff Edelstein • He/him/his • 5’10”, Jewish and White person with short, dark-brown hair, light-brown, close-trim beard, and blackish-blue thick-frame glasses • Non-disabled, cisgender male with anxiety & depression • PhD student, Higher Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst Liz Thomson • They/them/theirs • 5’2”, Vietnamese person with shaved black hair and black glasses • Disabled, bi/queer, cisgender female and gender non-conforming • PhD candidate, in Disability Studies; Director, Equity, Diversity, & Intercultural Programs, University of Minnesota, Morris

  5. Setting the Stage Disability Identity • Cultural, political, and personal; fluid (Shakespeare, 1996) • College transition often spurs identity development (Forber-Pratt, et al., 2017) • Positive disability identity can increase sense of belonging and thus support retention (Raver, et al., 2018) Identity first and People first language usage • “Disabled Person” • “Person with a Disability”

  6. Setting the Stage, cont’d Disability Culture • Brings together as a community the larger group of disabled individuals • Expresses pride through the arts, literature, sport, and ways of doing and thinking • “… shared experience with disability…” Disability Studies • Interdisciplinary academic discipline; redefines disability from more of a social constructive perspective while examining the the role the environment plays in shaping disability experience, culture, and identity • Framing the DCC within Disability Studies can help ensure a consistent progressive concept of disability and social justice values

  7. Disability, Diversity, & Inclusion • Seeks to see how disability in higher education can be approached as a form of diversity and with intersectionality (Kim & Aquino, 2017) • ”… current disconnect between perceptions of disability and student diversity in higher education…” (Kim & Aquino, 2017, p. xii) • Disability education is a shared responsibility; Paradigm shift happening (Myers, Lindburg, & Nied, 2013) • Disability with a social justice approach; “… examine institutional structures, programs, and policies as these are institutional manifestations of ableism” (Evans, Broido, Brown, & Wilke, 2017, p. 2)

  8. Emergence of Disability Cultural Centers (DCCs) • DCCs emerged from the rise of civils rights movements in the 1960s and 70s and the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 • The first DCC was founded in 1991 by students at the University of Minnesota and still exists as the student-led Disabled Students Cultural Center (DSCC) • Two more DCCs - the Disability Cultural Center at Syracuse University and the D Center at the University of Washington - emerged early in this decade • In the past few years, we’ve experienced a relative surge in DCCs on college campuses with strong interest from students, faculty, and staff across the U.S.

  9. Student Leadership Photo by Bryce Tuttle (Shelby, 2017 Oct 24)

  10. Differences Between a Disability Resource Center & Disability Cultural Center – UIC Example

  11. Current DCCs

  12. DCCs in Progress • Brown University • Duke University • Georgetown University • University of California – Berkeley • University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

  13. DCC Videos Disability Cultural Center Tour: University of Illinois at Chicago - https://youtu.be/BFe4POvxmLY Disability Cultural Center Tour: Miami University - https://youtu.be/lYM9v1KdV_0 Disability Cultural Center Tour: University of Arizona - https://youtu.be/qQgdpH7HmWQ The Syracuse University Disability Cultural Center: History, Evolution, and Future - https://youtu.be/P-kQHCOS8BU

  14. Panelist Perspectives

  15. Ways to Support Disabled Student Activists • Provide students with tips and technology to make all their communications (online and in person) accessible and model accessible collaboration from the start • Have students create a communication strategy to share disability cultural center planning information; seek out the diversity of the campus community • Help students create a research strategy to gather data. Consider using surveys, interviews, and/or focus groups. Divide up labor of research tasks.

  16. Ways to Support Disabled Student Activists, cont’d • Help students navigate and work with administration. Teach them to combine facts and emotions - research data and lived experiences - in their arguments, focus on inviting rather than accusing, ask and take questions, have a clear and actionable ask • Encourage students to collaborate with other identity cultural centers and to work as allies • Identify and collaborate with the local disabled community • Connect them with disabled faculty and staff • Support disabled students in their development of a positive disability identity and the building of campus disability community

  17. Support for DCCs List-serve started by Lydia X. Z. Brown https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/disability-cultural-centers AHEAD DCC Discussion Group list-serve and Disability Studies Special Interest Group E-mail to: disability-cultural-center@ahead-listserve.org Disabilities Studies SIG meeting - Thursday, July 11, at 12:30 p.m.

  18. Questions and Answers

  19. Contact Information Kim Elmore E-mail: kimwpelmore@gmail.com Phone: (318) 542-1164 Jeff Edelstein E-mail: jedelstein@umass.edu Phone: (954) 937-2268 Liz Thomson E-mail: lthomson@uic.edu Phone: (773) 330-6878

  20. References Campus life: Minnesota; Cultural center for the disabled prompts debate. (1992, April 26). The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/26/nyregion/campus-life-minnesota-cultural-center-for-the-disabled-prompts-debate.html Evans, N. J., Broido, E. M., Brown, K. R., & Wilke, A. K. (2017). Disability in Higher Education a Social Justice Approach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Forber-Pratt, A., Lyew, D. A., Mueller, C., & Samples, L. B. (2017). Disability identity development: A systematic review of the literature. Rehabilitation Psychology, 62(2), 198-207. doi:10.1037/rep0000134 Kim, E. & Aquino, K. C. (2017). Disability as Diversity in Higher Education; Policies and Practices to Enhance Student Success. New York, NY: Routledge.

  21. References, cont’d de Laa, J. M. (n.d.) Progress. Retrieved from https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=progress&i=172431 Myers, K. A., Lindburg, J. J., & Nied, D. M. (2013). Allies for Inclusion: Disability and Equity in Higher Education. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Shakespeare, T. (1996). Disability, identity and difference. In C. Barnes & G. Mercer (Eds.), Exploring the divide (pp. 94-113). Leeds: The Disability Press. Shelby, T. (2017, Oct 24). ASSU-led Disabilities Week to culminate in launch of ‘Abilities Hub.’ Stanford Daily. Retrieved from https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/10/24/assu-led-disabilities-week-to-culminate-in-launch-of-abilities-hub

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