Anger and Thirst for Change Among Students With Disabilities in Higher Education

Abstract

The K-12 sector has sought to develop inclusive provisions for over two decades, but post-secondary education has not shifted as rapidly towards the inclusion of students with disabilities. Inclusion still mostly amounts to retrofitting and the provision of accommodations. This leads to a degree of stigmatization, and rarely leads to a genuine metamorphosis of the higher education classroom, or the transformation of pedagogy. The result is a tangible tension between the expectations of students with disabilities and institutional culture. The chapter examines the power of the current discourse of students with disabilities and their thirst for change. It then seeks to explore how this discourse can be translated into action, and more particularly how the social model of disability can be integrated into higher education. Universal design for learning appears as a promising framework to translate this activism into tangible change. The chapter develops this reflection beyond pedagogy itself and considers how a framework such as UDL can support a radical transformation of leadership.