7 Systemic violence and power imbalances
“Super cookie cutter. These are the things we have to offer.” – (Student A) In interviews, students drew attention to institutional power dynamics, particularly between students and SAS, and students and faculty, which consistently disadvantages students. For example, students repeatedly told us that accommodations were set without their input and that such “cookie cutter” accommodations did not reflect their specific needs and experiences. Here, students describe their exclusion as experts on their lived experiences and access needs as a form of injustice or violence.
“I have to educate teachers like on, ‘Oh, this is what I need. This is how I work’… and sometimes I don’t have time to do that.” – Hodari Reuben Clarke (Student) Students also stressed that they have little power and say over how accommodations are implemented in class. In order to carve out access that is meaningful, students told us that they expend significant labour educating SAS advisors and faculty about their access needs, often re-negotiating accommodations to better meet their needs. In line with other research, our findings show that access (even a minimal degree of access) often requires a lot of hidden work (Bruce, 2020).
Moreover, academic accommodation systems are, by their very nature, individualized and fragmented. In HEI, access is engaged as an individual problem meriting an individual response (Dolmage, 2017). As a result, access/accommodations become siloed into one office, which in turn diminishes the institutional capacity to respond to ableism (NEADS, 2018). Interviewees emphasized that faculty are left to their own devices without institutional support for implementing access-centered pedagogies. This can in turn create even more work for students, to teach their teachers about access in the classroom.
“The technology is not totally in place…I felt this other level of disability through that experience…I would have to each time ask, ‘Oh hey, hey guys, I can’t see the slides or you right now’… even if that prof said ‘Yes’ [to the accommodation for virtual instruction], he was not supported to fully allow me to be part of, to be a full participant in that course.” – Noelle* (Student)
In the current system, access-oriented practices are bolted-on instead of built-in to classroom design and pedagogy. Individualized and piecemeal approaches to access means inconsistency in the delivery of academic accommodations and supports. Students explained that they receive varying levels of access, ranging from sufficient to grossly insufficient, with no accountability to the student.
“Teachers that really felt passionate about their work and the students would make changes in their classroom, but it wasn’t everybody.” – Akoya Kiyama* (Student)