Signs of Disability: Faculty, Accommodations and Access at Work

While accommodation procedures for students are by now generally recognized and recognizable (although there is certainly still tremendous work to do on this front), the question of faculty accommodations is uncharted terrain on many college and university campuses. Beginning by articulating the concept of “signs of disability”—a means of making disability available for perception using a variety of embodied, environmental, and discursive practices—this talk moves through some of the experiences and encounters that disabled faculty have shared in research interviews, published accounts, and surveys. What such accounts reveal is that the emergence of disability and concomitant development of access and accommodation practices is part of a dynamic interrelationship between institutional cultures, environments for disability, and various ways that disability is available for noticing (or not-noticing) within faculty bodies and practices. The talk will conclude with some next-steps and questions for those interested and invested in creating more broadly inclusive academic environments for all members of the campus community, including faculty.