Using institutional ethnography to explicate the story of student affairs professionals doing the work of supporting students with disabilities

This study explores the practices of student affairs professionals as they do the work of accommodating students with disabilities within one BC post-secondary institution. It examines the widely used accommodation model that is based on the idea that disability is a medical condition that needs to be remediated. The very model that is intended to assist students with disabilities access higher education acts as a barrier to their participation. Students report that accessing accommodations is complicated, and invariably makes them more visible or “othered” in the classroom. The number of students using accommodations, and the complexity of their needs, is increasing at an alarming rate, and the accessibility offices are not adequately resourced to meet the demand. Faculty also feel overwhelmed by the growing diversity in their classrooms and the volume and complexity of accommodation requests. Both staff and faculty recognize that change must happen. However, they report being so busy maintaining the accommodation apparatus that they lack the time to explore how they could change the ways they do their work. An “expectant inertia” exists, whereby administrators are waiting for the accessibility staff to lead change, accessibility staff are waiting for faculty and curriculum designers to embrace change, and faculty and staff are looking to administrators to lead the change. This research uses institutional ethnography (IE) to explicate the invisible rules that explain this expectant inertia. IE is both a conceptual framework and a methodology that explores the rules and regulations that structure and limit day-to-day work, making it an ideal framework from which to explicate this phenomenon. This research is that the accommodation model is based on human rights law and is maintained because it is a system that works for the institution. The various forms and work tools that have been developed help workers process students as cases, but have negative and unintended consequences for students. This research revealed that the desire to change is not enough; it will take the concerted effort of administrators who align their exposed values on equity, diversity, and inclusion with resources to champion change.