‘Cripping’ the University and Abolitionist Educational Access: A Possible Roadmap to Reimagine and Redesign Disability Services

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that colleges and universities must continue to move beyond the framework of ‘reasonable accommodations’ as the primary approach to disability service provision for students, faculty, and staff with both apparent and non-apparent impairments, whether these educational community members identify with the label of ‘disability’ or not. Drawing from a larger study, involving interviews with students and staff with disabilities at a large public university, as well as a theoretical analysis of what access might mean, I offer the alternative framing of critical access studies and design justice as one potentially fruitful alternative for expanding the horizon of disability service provision as it currently exists to bring about fundamental systemic change within the Academy.

Keywords: Abolitionist educational access, non-reformist reform, accommodations, accessibility, universal design, universal design for learning, universal design for instruction, abolition, design justice, Crip Theory, critical access studies, disability justice