Profiting off of Disabled Experiences (A Thread)
If you are in #DisabilityStudies and you identify as able bodied I really hope you take a hard look at why you're in this field. Are you doing this work because it's "up and coming"? Bc there's demand for these classes? (1/13)

Or do you truly identify as an ally? I'm seeing all these calls for papers on the #disabled experience of the pandemic and it's so depressing. Bc you're profiting off of us and we're dying in disproportionate levels. Globally our minority has the highest rates of poverty (2/13)

The highest rates of unemployment, and medical abuse, and those stats are magnified even more for BIPOC and other marginalized communities who have intersectional disabled identities. (3/13)

And it would be one thing to profit off of us if there were substantial changes, but #HigherEducation is an incredibly ableist space. So when your write about our experiences, are you then committing to making your uni a safe space for disabled students? (4/13)

Are you using Universal Design strategies in your classroom? Are you designing for accessibility in the first place, rather than adding accommodations in when they're requested? Are you combating #AcademicAbleism? (5/13)

Are you reading about #WhyDisabledPeopleDropOut? Are you complicit when you notice colleagues skirting the ADA? Are you clear with your students that you will respect accommodation requests without complaint? (6/13)

@JayDolmage reports in his book Academic Ableism that roughly 3.6% of the professoriate identifies as disabled. So I think I can safely assume that most people in Disability Studies are able bodied (or feel unsafe disclosing). (7/13)

Do you know that your research, your publications, your op eds have incredible reach in terms of policy? In terms of how we even talk about disability? Do you ask yourself "what will this work DO for disabled people" when you conduct it? (8/13)

Do those of you in #dishist carefully consider the impact of your conclusions about the emergence of disability? Do you ask disabled people to read your work for critique? (9/13)

It feels like these are not questions for 2020, but they've been plaguing me for a while. And while I didn't write this because of any piece of bad academic work, it's been worrying me for my whole academic career. (10/13)

I am disabled. I worry all the time about what take aways my readers will have after looking at my work. I worry that this might be their introduction to the disabled community, to talking about disability, to engaging with issues of disability. (11/13)

I hope everyone in the field is taking it just as seriously. I hope you're committing to hiring disabled faculty members. I hope disabled faculty feel comfortable disclosing to you, as do students. We're not only figures in your research, we're all around you. (12/13)

When you guide topics in research think about what it does for us. Don't just write about disabled lives in the pandemic, commit to changing this moment for us. #Disability #DisabilityTwitter #phdchat #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter (13/13)