Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will:

1. Understand how a LaGuardia student with a disability navigates college
2. Consider what forces influence your beliefs about illness and disability
3. Develop an understanding of what ableism is and why students may not wish to disclose a disability
4. Consider the medical vs. social model of disability
5. Be introduced to the Office of Accessibility and the Neurodiversity Program
6. Learn about access needs and accommodations students can receive if they have a disability or other condition that requires support
7. Understand that disability is intersectional

Introduction

People with disabilities and chronic conditions are our classmates, our neighbors, our friends, and our family members. They include people of all ethnicities, cultures, ages, genders, and economic positions. In fact, more than 1 in 4 (28.7 percent) adults in the United States have some form of disability (Center for Disease Control, 2024), so you can be certain that some of your LaGuardia classmates, professors, and staff also have disabilities. Their conditions may be visible or invisible. You’ll find that they are some of the smartest, wisest, and most creative people with whom you’ll interact.

Perhaps this describes you or someone you care about.

Disabled culture and communities are vast and diverse. However, the voices and experiences of people with disabilities are frequently marginalized or overlooked. For this reason, this chapter centers the experiences of one student, Tahlaiya Thompson, a LaGuardia Community College alumna who identifies as autistic. She shares her experience navigating college with an invisible disability, the reality of ableism, and developing agency to make decisions about her own learning.

Meet Tahlaiya

Beliefs about Illness and Disability

Social, cultural and intergenerational messages may have influenced your beliefs about illness and disability. They can directly inform how you or someone you know identifies and whether or not one considers getting access needs met as a new college student.

Reflection:

1. What messages have you received about disability, neurodiversity, illness etc. in your friend group, your family, at school, or in the media you enjoy?
2. How have these messages affected you or people you care about?

Note: How we talk about something shapes how we, and others, feel about it. Language creates the stories we tell and the conversations we have. Language can be marginalizing, but it can also be empowering.

You may not like the word “disabled” or may be uncomfortable using it to describe yourself or people you know, because it may carry a negative connotation. Some people, like Tahlaiya, identify with their specific condition and take ownership of the word as a form of empowerment. Others never use the word disabled. Students figure this out at different times and that’s ok! All students learn a lot about themselves in college, and this aspect of identity can take time. If a friend or classmate is going through this process it is helpful to remain flexible.

Regardless of what you have been taught or the language you choose, there isn’t anything “wrong” with anyone with a visible or invisible disability or condition. Having a diagnosis of a disability simply means that one has a condition that might require treatment or specialized intervention – or it might not. Just because someone has a disability diagnosis doesn’t mean anything about a person’s ability, competency or character.

Medical vs. Social Model of Disability

The Disability Justice movement challenges the view of disability as an individual deficit or defect that can only be fixed through medical intervention by experts such as doctors, therapists, and in extreme cases, institutionalization. Activists consider the social, political, cultural, and economic factors that define disability rather than locating the problem in the individual. Instead, they argue that disability is socially constructed, and is a byproduct of society’s ableist barriers, not an individual problem that requires medical intervention.

Reflection:

1. What is the difference between viewing disability as an individual deficit vs. viewing disability as a social construct?
2. How would you or others benefit from this change in perspective?

Ableism Explained

Ableism is structural discrimination against disabled people. This includes ableist narratives, practices, and world views that are so much a part of what people accept as normal that they typically go unnoticed or are presumed as facts of reality. Systemic ableism favors and normalizes people who are able-bodied.

Often, structures like inaccessible buildings and classrooms, assignments, and societal norms pose more of an obstacle than someone’s disability itself. That’s why disability activists argue that society creates the disability, not our bodies.

Ableism may be something students face, but there are resources available at LaGuardia to support your success success.

Making college more accessible

Reflection:

1. What messages have you received about getting [academic] support in school?
2. Are you aware of the services students can receive to make school more accessible? Would you take advantage of them or encourage a friend to do so? Why or why not?

The Office of Accessibility

Whether a student has a physical or invisible disability, learning disability, mental health condition, chronic health issue, temporary injury, or other condition, staff in the Office of Accessibility are advocates for students. They are there to help transition to college life, provide access to programs and services, and support students throughout their college journey so they can fully participate and succeed.

LaGuardia Community College is legally required to make sure students with disabilities and chronic conditions have equal access to education, and that their rights are not denied. In addition, as required by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”), the Office of Accessibility also works to prevent discrimination against students experiencing conditions considered to be short-term disabilities, e.g. pregnancy, childbirth, or recovery from pregnancy termination.

Disclosing one’s disability with the Office of Accessibility is the first step in a student’s path to support. You’ll share information about your specific condition and how it has or may impact your college experience. Don’t worry – you will be supported in a non-judgemental environment, and any information that you share will be kept confidential.

Accommodations

Reasonable accommodations do not make things easier for disabled people. They make things possible.

Reasonable accommodations are modifications that are made to a person’s environment in order to make something accessible to someone with a disability. The term is connected to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a disability policy and law.

Staff in the Office of Accessibility will work with you to determine the accommodations that will be most helpful for you based on your individual access needs. Here are some example accommodations that you may benefit from:

1. Testing accommodations like additional time for exams
2. Note-taking accommodations
3. Textbooks in alternative formats
4. Furniture and room accommodations
5. Assistive technology
6. Interpreting accommodations

Reflection

1. Have there been times when one of these accommodations would have helped you or someone you care about do well in classes?
2. What difference do you think it would have made?

Real Barriers to Accommodation

Unfortunately, the legal criteria for providing most support for students with disabilities in the college setting relies on a medical diagnosis and documentation of a condition. Not all students who would benefit from support can or choose to get a diagnosis. The financial costs associated with seeing a doctor may be prohibitive. The psychological cost may also be too great to students who have historically been harmed by the medical system, and have very legitimate reasons to not trust it to keep them safe.

Many people experience stigma – feelings of shame, hopelessness and isolation, which leads to reluctance to ask for help or to get treatment and lack of understanding by family, friends or others.

One of the benefits of a social approach to disability, which you read about earlier, would be that students wouldn’t need to receive a diagnosis or disclose personal details about themselves to receive support.

Keep in mind that these medical requirements were not created by the staff in the Office of Accessibility; rather staff must comply with the law.

The Neurodiversity Program – Project REACH at the Wellness Center

First – what is Neurodiversity?

Neurodiversity is the concept that people do not come in a one-size-fits-all neurologically “normal” package. Instead, it recognizes that all variations of human neurological function need to be respected as just another way of being, and that neurological differences like Autism and ADHD are the result of normal/natural variations in the human genome.

Neurodiversity is seen as a movement by many towards more equal treatment and more widespread acceptance for those on the spectrum, and with disabilities in general. Like other disabilities, neurodiversity is a way of being rather than a disease or disorder that must be cured.

The Wellness Center’s Neurodiversity Program – Project REACH offers students access to services that will lead to academic success while providing educational opportunities to increase self-knowledge.

The program offers one-on-one coaching in weekly or bi-weekly one-on-one sessions to get personalized support tailored to each students’ needs and goals.

Individual neurodiversity coaching may include:

1. Teaching skills in making new friends and acquaintances
2. Anxiety around others during social situations
3. Identifying and accomplishing goals
4. Teaching students to advocate for themselves
5. Referrals to other services and programming on campus
6. The program also offers group coaching, skills workshops, and study groups.

Send an email to the Neurodiversity Program [neurodiversity@lagcc.cuny.edu] to learn more.

Managing your disability & taking care of yourself

burnout and balance (rose 2, rose 1, magenta)

Managing a disability or other condition can be physically and emotionally draining. People with disabilities are often forced to perform in a certain way or take on emotional labor to manage other people’s emotions and social expectations around disability. For example, people with invisible disabilities may disclose their conditions to minimize skepticism or doubt about their need for accommodations. Some students avoid accommodations altogether, because the energy drain is less significant. Having to explain and educate others about conditions can be very exhausting.

One way that students cope is to mask behaviors that are not socially acceptable so that their condition is undetected. This means they are hiding who they really are, and it can feel like a full-time job.

Add this labor on top of the day to day realities of our conditions, plus home, family, work, and school expectations and it is very reasonable to experience burnout!

Having a community or support system of allies who are understanding and can accommodate you will make things a little easier. If and when challenges arise as a result of your disability you’ll have people to help you navigate, work with you to deal with possible setbacks, and find solutions.

Tahlaya’s story is just one of many about going to school with a disability.

You can learn about more student leaders in the CUNY disability community who share their stories.

If you’d like to connect with other students involved in disability activism at CUNY check out CUNY Coalition of Students with Disabilities.

Want to be an ally?

1. Read I’m a “Spoonie.” Here’s What I Wish More People Knew About Chronic Illness. It is based on Spoon theory, a metaphor explaining the limited energy or capacity people with chronic illnesses or disabilities have for daily activities.
2. Learn more about disability justice and solidarity from contemporary activists Sins Invalid, Imani Barbarin, Lydia X.Z. Brown, Mia Mingus, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Alice Wong.
3. Watch presentations from the Disability Intersectionality Summit. Disability intersects with various other identities, magnifying the complexity and discrimination faced by individuals with disabilities. Is your language ableist? Refer to this list of potentially ableist terms and their alternatives as a starting point.

Licenses, Attributions, and Citations

• Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning by Briana Fraser and Luke McKnight is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, except where otherwise noted.
• Center for Disease Control (2024, July 16). CDC Data Shows Over 70 Million U.S. Adults Reported Having a Disability. CDC Newsroom.
• Critical Disability: Power, Identity, and Systems Change by Dora Raymaker is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
• Introducing Developmental Disability Through a Disability Studies Perspective by Emily Brooks and Mariette Bates is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
• Social Work Practice and Disability Communities: An Intersectional Anti-Oppressive Approach by Elspeth Slayter and Lisa Johnson is licensed under a CC NY-NC-SA 4.0 license except where otherwise noted.