All Wrong

Two recent articles from popular academic blogs about how disabled students access the university in North America have justly prompted outrage from the disabled community and reinvigorated questions about the best modes of redressing ableism in higher education. This research article examines contemporary discourse surrounding Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodations and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as forms of redress for ableism. Through analyzing articles from a sample of influential contemporary American opinions on academic blogs, newspapers, books, and articles produced by education experts on UDL. Through analyzing articles from a sample of influential contemporary American opinions on academic blogs, newspapers, books, and articles produced by education experts on UDL, this examination highlights the demand for the legibility of the disabled student, which popularizes ableist myths about disabled students compromising rigor and eliding disabled history from the academy. Both discourses further demonstrate how disabled students are assimilated into the university, rather than the university valuing a disabled or crip epistemology. Adopting an anti-ableist critical pedagogy that both preserves and expands upon the accommodations currently available, while simultaneously reimagining disabled epistemologies in the university, could allow for disabled knowledge production in the ivory tower.