Faculty
Anthropology
Supervisor Name
Kim Clark, Andrew Walsh
Keywords
Disability, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Access Fatigue, Accessible Teaching, Pandemic, Flexible assignment deadlines, lived experience, class delivery
Description
In the context of the "return to normal" on university campuses in the ongoing pandemic, our research team wondered what students with disabilities could tell us about what makes university classes and services more and less accessible to them, and in that broader context, what pandemic modifications they hope continue. After two years of innovation, if we rush back to normal, we are at risk of squandering hard-won new skills, technology, and insights that are of broad value for all students. Disabled students' experiences and perspectives, as reported in 80 survey responses and 16 interviews, disrupt common assumptions about accessibility and the disabled population at universities and in Canada.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Western's USRI program, and faculty advisors Kim Clark and Andrew Walsh of the Anthropology department for their ongoing dedication and support.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Paper
Included in
Accessibility Commons, Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Disability Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
University Students With Disabilities, Accessibility, and the "Return to Normal"
In the context of the "return to normal" on university campuses in the ongoing pandemic, our research team wondered what students with disabilities could tell us about what makes university classes and services more and less accessible to them, and in that broader context, what pandemic modifications they hope continue. After two years of innovation, if we rush back to normal, we are at risk of squandering hard-won new skills, technology, and insights that are of broad value for all students. Disabled students' experiences and perspectives, as reported in 80 survey responses and 16 interviews, disrupt common assumptions about accessibility and the disabled population at universities and in Canada.