Upcoming Disability in an Intersectional Lens Conference

For more information on the upcoming conference, visit the conference blog at:
http://bccc-conferences.blogspot.com/
Thank you!

i exist in the blog-o-sphere

i thought i'd join the discussion & make my virtual presence known. Within digital spaces I like to think about what Lev Manovich says: 

virtual spaces are not lack of reality, they are merely a different version of another reality. 

Thanks Dene, for all of these provocative & productive ideas. Access to me is a concept, a practice, & an approach. The word comes, at least minimally, from the Latin word accessus [an approach]. On the conceptual level then, access brings about presence & provides the ability to put information to use & set social justice in action. Most often, with access come agency & subjectivity. Literacy scholar Jacqueline Jones Royster defines literacy as having access to information that then can be put to use in order to solve complex problems over an extended period of time (book: Traces of A Stream-Literacy & Social Change Among African American Women). Access is social and cultural advocacy that leaves behind capitalism's snare of forcing us to believe there is never enough of everything. Access is an abundance theory. And however hard I wish to not universalize the term, the nature of concepts is that I must.

I want to ask: When we talk about access--what are we talking about--access TO WHAT? Information, economic, social, & cultural capital? Physical spaces? Technology, knowledge, history?

Accessibility Guidelines for Conferences

I thought it would be a good idea to start a second blog/comment space to talk about ideas for accessibility guidelines conferences along side the 'what is accessibility' discussion so that we can think about this in a really practical way as we go along, even though we haven't really done this as a group. so these are some of my initial thoughts. Even though this might practically related to a conference, we don't have to limit it to this.

In taking up the task of creating an accessibility guidelines, i think it is essential that we continually remind ourselves that we cannot make universal claims on accessibility because universal claims have a long history of continuing the systematic exclusion of more marginalized groups. This is very different from the goals of universal design, which suggests that it is possible to make something accessible to everyone who may even potentially want to participate. Different people will be more prepared to have access to different kinds of modalities. Even if universal design was able to make a space accessible to all participants, they will still be accessing spaces in diverse ways. What is made accessible, and how that accessibility is experienced might be so diverse that it becomes impossible to make any universal statement.

I think that presenters should be asked to consider multiple modalities or layers of accessibility. For example, those who have seen me present my work know that i put a lot of emotion into my delivery, through pacing and emphasizing various words or phrases and pauses. Sometimes i speak too fast for some people, but that pace is what shapes the emotionality that I'm layering into the work. In this way, the emotionality that comes out in my delivery, even as some words are inaccessible, it makes emotionality a modality in which i communicate my theory & it makes it possible for a more emotional way of knowing - and knowledge can become accessible through an emotional modality. I think words can open us up to a more tactile mode of knowing and learning - videos, images, music open up others. i think that presenters should make it known in their abstracts, or in the program, that they've considered these modalities or ways of knowing, and make it explicit which ones they hope to utilize.

- presenters should recognize that their object of study might be present in the audience.

- programs should include information addressing potentially emotionally traumatizing presentations/topics, so that attendants can better use their discretion.

- invite people to stand up, especially during longer sessions to walk around if they want to.

- What if CD's that had PDF's and word files of presentations also had an audio file?

- caucuses about accessibility?

What is accessibility?

Lately, many of us have been having conversations about ‘what is accessibility?’ from a variety of experiences related to activism, organizing, engagement, abilities, strengths, struggles, pleasures, and pains. This issue has proven to be more difficult, and more important than I think most of us could have expected.

In an effort to allow these conversations to continue across time and space, in ways that could not happen at our meetings, and in an effort to use this space to engage a broad range of experiences, we would like to invite visitors to contribute.

Feel free to shoot me any questions: dagrange@syr.edu

So, what have we been talking about?

Access, inclusion, and exclusion are emotional issues, and connected to our hopes and dreams. Our access to physical/emotional/intellectual/social spaces which develop our focus and perspectives on our strengths or weaknesses, pleasures or pains, influences so much of our lives, and can open and limit a large variety of possibilities in our lives. Disability can be an identity that marks more normative ways of doing, even though it has been more normative ways that have been doing the labeling. In this way, our experiences can teach us what this means for the ways we are disciplined and ruled, regulated and rehabilitated out of our usual ways, and how we are all being made into molds, and cookie-cutter bodies. None of us will ever fit those cookie-cutters. Rather than try and cut out our diversity, we must learn how to acknowledge it and cherish it, even though we've learned so well how to divide ourselves.

Multiculturalism and diversity are words that have been utilized in unproductive ways, and so i want to be clear about what i mean when i say that we need to learn how to cherish diversity. Diversity, access/inclusion and segregation is emotional. Sometimes are differences are going to create more things which challenge us and challenge who we are than what we can know about at international food day. As happy as our bellies may be, hard differences must be recognized and acknowledged if we can even think that we might have something to cherish.

Claims of universal design, like any claims to universality, does work to silence or erase perspectives that do not fall into what we count as 'universal design' or 'accessible.' In the name of diversity, and in recognizing differences, it is important to recognize that these differences cannot all be accounted for and that these differences need to be accounted for in very contextual ways.

Sometimes, what will be good for one person is not always good for another. Sometimes our needs conflict with one another. I am sensitive to bright lights, while my partner needs additional lighting to read. It seems like a simple example, but I bet some of you have more examples that might complicate this principle. Sometimes, what’s good for one person in one moment can be bad for that person in the next. For example, I get easily distracted when people interrupt me when I’m talking, but at the same time, I tend to impulsively interrupt people. It would be easy for some teachers to take up the task to never interrupt students, but if that standard was used to gauge accessibility in my classroom, it could potentially systematically exclude particular embodiments.

Accessibility, like diversity, is not zero-sum. It is not something we can gauge in a binary way - it is not accessible or inaccessible, it is not diverse or segregated - even a room of white men is diverse. For example, as a student with a learning disability, ‘institutions of higher learning’ have done a lot to open up access to some things (like creating this) but it has also done a lot to limit me in a lot of other ways. There’s a lot of creative ways people have been able to negotiate various exclusionary features of various spaces. And I hope that this word exclusionary isn’t too strong. For example, when school gets tough, usually my activist work is neglected because I have been taught that my school work is my top priority, and activist work isn’t thought of as a kind of school work. in a way, when school gets tough, I don’t have a choice about doing activism. As a result, schools have set up a system which works to exclude people like me from activism. And it’s not just my activist work that suffers, but my community of support is neglected as well, making school that much more difficult.

I hope this example also shows how important it is that we share stories about our experiences. Some times it’s hard to say why something is important, but it doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly important.

I know there's probably more that I could say, but i thought this would get us going.

talking back

I wrote the following, in thinking about what kind of suggestions i would make to my fellow disabled students, or what i think we might be able to tell our professors, when having to deal with our 'disclosure conversation' - suggestions for the disabled student, that allows us to TALK BACK to those dominant voices that talk to much. or perhaps an assurance that these conversations are so much like walking a tight-rope, and an exploration of other ways to deal with the stigma, that the usually bits of information can't tell us about. any responses or additions would be greatly appreciated, and you could email me at dagrange@syr.edu, and i can post them.

• don't be shocked by the news if one of your 'normal students' comes out of the closet with you, and challanges your perception of them. Don't assume that we don't love the knowledge that our bodies provide us, don't assume that we are afflicted with something terrible, that you have to run from, or be scared of.
• Ask me about my experiences with other teachers or Office of Disability Services. And don't forget to consult me on how you should deal with me in your classroom. And don't forget that there are some questions that i may not want to hear, let alone answer. Don't ask me what i need help with, tell me that you would like to help me out however you can. Ask me about what i like about school, what have been my favorite class projects, what are my hobbies. Learn about what i'm interested in so that you'll be better at hooking us in to the class work. Learn what we're good at and you will learn how we experss our knowledges best. Learn what our voice sounds like because you might have to make space to hear it.
• Don't think that we're special people asking for special treatment. If schools were not made to systematically exclude us, we wouldn't have to share so much personal information because we wouldn't need accomodations. Accomodations are one way that we can change normal schooling so that we can learn and express our knowledge, because we want to learn, but accomodations can't do everything for us.
• Don't think that Disability Services-required accomodations are sufficient. If we require extra time on an exam, it will also take us longer for us to write our papers, study for texts, and read our books. Do not assume that our untimely-ness has anything to do with our organization skills, or our abilities, or our commitment to our school work or your class. Rather, assume that it is simply because we work differently. Even if you're wrong, it's rare for students like us to get any recognition for the time we put into our work. Cut me some slack, even if the law doesn't require it. I work differently and that deserves some recognition.
• And just because some doctor gave us a label doesn't mean that we will tell you about it, or that my classmate will disclose, because they may not even know how to, or know that they can negotiate the classroom structure to facilitate our  collective learning. Stating the purpose of Disability Services on your syllabus will not reach all of us. Instead invite all students to discuss how we enjoy learning, what we're interested in learning about, and how we enjoy expressing our knowledges, because if we enjoy your class, we will get more out of it. And that's not a 'disabled' thing.
• Just because you don't understand something we've written or said, don't assume that we don't have something intelligible to say. Rather, ask us to explain ourselves because you are also telling us that you know that we have something valuable to explain. That sentence or paragraph that you circled, and wrote a question mark next to, may have taken us a great deal of energy to write because it was important to us. Don't disregard our ideas as unintelligible if you don't understand. Take time to ask us, to make an effort to understand us. Use your actions to let us know that you have not taken our efforts for granted.
• Don't forget that there are very few students with learning disabilities that are privileged enough to make the choice to go to college because our cards have been stacked up against us all the way here. We are here because we want to learn. I may come to you as a philosopher of my own education with ideas you have not heard before. Even if I don't discuss our philosophies with you, never forget that. We can be an uncommon asset, which challenges your ways of thinking about learning and teaching, that we require that your teaching practices become more creative and tangible for all students.

A Call to Work on New Understandings of Learning Disability

When I first came to Syracuse to start my master's degree in Cultural Foundations of Education, I had to register with the Office of Disability Services to get accommodations, because my dyslexic body has been systematically excluded from educational design, and this is what the law provides me. When i went in, I picked up a brochure written by the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) - an organization which works to increase the inclusion of people with disabilities, the brochure was titled "College Students with Learning Disabilities." It offers about three pages of information describing various problems, difficulties, troubles, inconsistencies, lack of expediency, and unintelligibility that defines the learning-disabled student. It also makes suggestions on requesting reasonable accommodations, self-advocacy, and study habits.

 

I could not believe how much information there is on how horrible learning disability is, and how this defines it. Nor could i believe how little information it had about all those things that makes me believe that I would never trade my 'disabled' body for an able-body, or how it said nothing about confronting the stigma of being a self-advocate and requesting accommodations. For these two reasons, I have decided that we need some new information, some new propaganda that recognizes the abilities of disabled students, so that we can learn new ways to define ourselves in empowered ways, so that we can learn how to confront stigma and demand a better education.

I have been obsessed with figuring out how it is that i do learn and how i do read in really meaningful and valuable ways. I should not have to be continually working on reaffirming these capabilities, i am actually making it through graduate school, but i do. What is one person, obsessed with thinking about how they think about things? How weird is it to have one brain rationalizing it's self, trying to understand it's self? I just go in circles. I cannot do this on my own.

We need new information, new propaganda, but I cannot do it on my own because all of this negativity that has defined our bodies is powerful. This brochure was written with the help of someone with a learning disability. I am starting to think that our cards are so stacked up against us, we can't even know it... it's so easy to say 'i can't read' but imagining how i do is so much more difficult.

One day, I met this other dyslexic women, and we started talking about how we write papers. I'm starting to think that we were really talking about how we learn. She said to me, "I write papers like I'm putting together a jig-saw puzzle, or playing with a rubrics-cub," and i have heard another dyslexic man refer to rubrics-cubes as well, and I've said these exact same words. There is something important about that, and I wonder if we need those stories to make our propaganda, to help us remember how there is so much to appreciate about our bodies, so that we can become more powerful self-advocates who know what and how to demand a better education that recognizes our capabilities like never before.

This is one description of my learning process, it's an excerpt from a paper titled "A tribute to my body, as I travel in the form of a ghost," and I have it in audio form:

What they, and often times we do not know is that the only possibility we have is to learn: not memorize, not cut corners. I have to know my stuff well enough to take it apart, look at it's pieces and reassemble. This is my process of appropriating knowledge and making it my own, in doing so, I'm doing work to create something new as i incorporate it into the old and begin to embody it.

I see ideas taking shapes of webs, marble sculptures, jigsaw puzzles, and rubrics-cubes that are always evolving in their own contexts... When I learn some thing new that challenges my current conception of things, there is a slight shift in the environment that begs me to turn the rubrics-cube over, to make adjustments elsewhere, or a new shape will become present in the marble that contains clues to understand the implications of these environmental shifts that go beyond the present environment. My spider webs have just been disrupted by a passer-by, and rebuilding must take place, sometimes with a different design.

I prefer to learn the details, the particulars, the small things about someone's argument, the way words and ideas ignite my senses and have text-ure that help me to find the fissures, the points of disconnect, and the unexpected points of connection.

***

Anything new that i learn, changes how i already know, or what i already know. Some people think that i'm distracted when i ask questions about something seemingly out of context, but they didn't turn over the rubrics-cube, they don't know about what i just saw. Those questions, seemingly out of context, are often just beyond the context the able-body is firmly planted. I have a dyslexic friend who told me, 'I think it would just be so boring to be them, they don't know that all of this is going on' - and it think she is right.

I have no doubt that many of you readers will be thinking the same thing as well, but i need to hear from you, because i can't do this on my own. If anyone would like to contribute to this discussion, please email me and I can post your response and keep your identity confidential with your request. You can contact me at dagrange@syr.edu

dene granger