Welcome to the Disability Justice Book Club Month 4
Jay Dolmage’s Academic Ableism
Led by Dr. Jennifer Gagnon (and her service dog Ziggy)
Supported by the EDI Scholars-in-Residence Program and the Peña Fund
If this is your first time attending the book club
If you’re joining the Disability Justice Book Club for the first time this month – welcome! We are so excited to have you with us! Please review the Month 1 Discussion Guide which contains important information on the structure of the book club, the two different cohorts: 1) Disabled and Proud and 2) Disability Allies, and ways that we are incorporating Disability Justice into how the book club works. The Month 1 Discussion Guide is available online here.
Accessing the Text
For our final month together, we will be reading Jay Dolmage’s Academic Ableism. The book is available open access in text and audio book formats, (free! No Institutional Login required). It can also be accessed through most institutional or public library systems. As always, if you encounter any challenges accessing the text, or require a different format for accessibility, feel free to reach out directly to Allan Cho (allan.cho@ubc.ca) or Jennifer Gagnon (jennifer.gagnon@ubc.ca) for support.
E-book format
- Available Open Access here
Audio format
- Available for free on Audible here
Confidentiality
A core practice of Disability Justice is confidentiality. Accessibility, safety, and inclusion all require that we are mindful to not disclose confidential information about the lived experiences of others. Many disabled folks have heightened concerns about confidentiality because of their experiences with ableism, discrimination, and marginalization. While some of us might feel comfortable sharing our experiences with disability and ableism, no one is required or expected to disclose. Folks may also not be “out” about their relationship to disability in all contexts and places at UBC and beyond. To further support control over disclosure of our identities and experiences with disability, we have created two cohorts for the Disability Justice book club 1) the Disabled and Proud cohort for folks who self-identify as disabled and who are interested in discussing Disability Justice with other self-identified disabled folks, and 2) the Disability Allies cohort for folks who do not presently identify as disabled or who would prefer not to disclose their relationship to disability. We always assume the presence of disability and access needs in all our meeting spaces. To support confidentiality and safety in these spaces, please treat the experiences of individuals as confidential and do not disclose anyone’s lived experiences without their enthusiastic consent. This Book Club is an opportunity to grow our knowledge and understanding of Disability Justice, and potentially “read yourself in” to Disabled community or explore how disability and ableism are already present in your experiences.
Discussion Guide
1. “Academic ableism is a difficult thing to consider. Coming to terms with ableism in higher education means questioning, as well, our own privilege, the very system that rewards professors and administrators and placed us at the top of a set of steep stairs.” p. 39
- How do you experience or see Academic Ableism at UBC or your university? What are some of the ways disabled folks experience academic ableism? What about non-disabled folks?
2. “The steep steps metaphor describes how the university has been constructed as a place for the very able. The steep steps metaphor puts forward the idea that access to the university is a movement upwards—only the truly ‘fit’ survive this climb” p. 44
- Who successfully climbs the steep steps of academic life? Who is deemed the “right amount of disabled” to be “accommodated” in academic spaces, and who is deemed “too disabled” to climb these steep steps? If the pinnacle is the top of the ivory tower – who makes it? Who doesn’t? Who gets trapped somewhere on the steps?
3. In what physical spaces do you see the “architecture of ableism” at the university? Why does the retrofit so rarely work? If retrofits are so problematic, why do you think academic spaces so often rely on retrofits? What’s the alternative?
4. If accommodations perpetuate academic ableism and punish rather than support the very people they are supposed to aid, then can the accommodations system be saved? Who determines what is “reasonable” and how does “reasonableness” vary across rank, role, department, institution? Can disabled folks “win” against the “business needs” of the university?
5. “What if higher education isn’t creating knowledge and ability but instead is systematically disabling? … What if higher education constructs both knowledge and disability? What if these constructions rely on one another?” p. 58
- What do you think of Dolmage’s claim that the knowledge production of the university depends upon the production of disability and disablism? How do we change the way Universities see disability to shift from perceiving disability as a problem to be fixed, to a core difference that better informs and expands the knowledge of the university?
6. Universities and educators often make “hidden assumptions” about who their students are and what those students are capable of doing. What are the hidden assumptions UBC makes about imaginary disabled students? Imaginary disabled faculty?
7. Is Universal Design for Learning (UDL) truly the answer? What are the benefits of UDL? What’s problematic about UDL or how the university is using UDL to “perform accessibility?”
8. As we conclude our book club together, what is something about Disability Justice that you have learned or embraced that you will take with you?
Thank you for participating in the Disability Justice Book Club! Feel free to connect with me (jennifer.gagnon@ubc.ca) or with the Disability Affinity Group (https://disabilityaffinitygroup.ubc.ca), especially about ways to collaborate and continue to grow Disability Justice in our university communities.