Centering Disability In Teaching

Advancing Equity and Inclusion

Historical Context of Disability in Teaching

Disability justice seeks to identify and disrupt the systemic influences that lead to the exclusion of people with disabilities. Review a Historical Context of Disability in Teaching.

Listen to a podcast where UC Berkeley students, educators, and staff from the disability community tell their stories and call the campus community in on acts of advocacy and disability justice.

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Review a video interview on demystifying accommodations.

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Overview

What does it mean to center disability in teaching?

Centering disability seeks to identify and disrupt the systemic influences of ableism and intersectionality, as well as other systemic barriers that lead to the exclusion and discrimination of people with disabilities. Teaching practices grounded in disability bring intentional focus and awareness to creating accessible learning environments, services, instructional strategies, responsive and educationally ethical strategies, and tools such that everyone, regardless of neurodiversity, disability, and health condition, and in other areas, can benefit from them.

Barriers due to disability are a longstanding issue in higher education. Efforts towards positive changes for people with disabilities primarily began in the 1970’s with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which included Section 504, providing support and accommodations for people with disabilities in public spaces. For several decades, the disability community continued to advocate due to the lack of implementation of the accessibility requirements in Section 504. Substantial change within communities was not launched until the 1990’s when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, requiring accessible communities, workplaces, and higher education. These two laws, the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibit universities from discriminating against students and staff/faculty with disabilities and require institutions to provide access, accommodations, and auxiliary aids, i.e. communication supports and aids to students with disabilities. 

Recent changes to the ADA are continuing to expand access, particularly for digital materials. These were not included in the original law because most educational materials that rely on digital interfaces had not yet been developed. Today, we have so many opportunities to create broader accessibility, but those materials may require remediation or pedagogy pivots to comply with the new WCAG 2.1 AA requirements, which need to be implemented by April 2026. UC Berkeley has a rich history supporting the disability advocacy movement. The disability justice movement in education includes evolving frameworks of how disability has been perceived in society, current trends in higher education, and continued advocacy activities.  

This moment in time is yet another call to action for UC Berkeley and across all of higher education to raise the bar on increased access and centering disability within our pedagogy, not as an afterthought but instead a mindset of equity and ethical principle that guides our teaching and learning environments. 

What language empowers your students with disabilities? 

When first centering disability into your teaching, you may be curious about the appropriate language when interacting with your students and members of the dis/ability community. Discussions regarding language related to individuals with disabilities are ongoing and evolving.  However, using person-first language (PFL), such as “a person with a visual impairment,” versus disability-first language, like “a blind person,” can be the most neutral approach that identifies the person before their disability; however, you may find that identity-first language (IFL) is common in disabled adult and university student communities. Encouraging a student or colleague with a disability to advise you on the best language to use is the next step when/if in doubt. Ladua (2021) reminds us that, “The choices that we, as disabled people, make about how to describe and define ourselves are deeply personal, and each of us has our own preferences. The way people who have a disability is their choice- I cannot stress this enough. We all need to respect these choices, even if we’re also disabled and someone else’s choices are different from our own,” (p. 10). Stanford University provides a comprehensive discussion on language use, emphasizing how critical it is to avoid using patronizing euphemisms such as “special needs” or “differently-abled.”

Using a Social Justice Approach in Disability Justice Teaching

“Coming to Berkeley and living on my own and managing all my responsibilities while figuring out how to be a student-- on top of that, not knowing I had a disability at the time was extremely difficult, because I was always comparing myself to other students who had everything "figured out."
(Marlenne Perez, Finding Space Podcast, Episode #3.

A recommended framework for approaching disability justice in higher education, considering the historical and emerging trends, is to use a Social Justice Approach. A social justice approach examines how disability is conceptualized and understands ways that students, faculty, and staff with disabilities are viewed and supported on college campuses. The social justice framework includes both the social and cultural models, acknowledging that much work has been done towards disability justice, but much work is still needed. Social justice draws from multiple theoretical frameworks, research, and experiences to recommend ways of creating inclusive campuses that are anti-ableist. A social justice framework acknowledges bias, inequities due to exclusion, ableism, and ongoing discriminatory practices that continually needing to be addressed. Universities can utilize principles of UDL, educational ethics, disability justice frameworks, and other inclusive practices specific to protected groups of students that can transform campus environments into more inclusive and equitable settings for students, faculty, and staff.

We are at a critical moment in our country, the Department of Education faces the threat of significant downsizing, jeopardizing its role in providing federal oversight and enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which governs K-12 special education. This shift may result in the loss of essential protections that guarantee students with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), which includes individualized education programs (IEPs), related services, and education in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) in K-12 settings. Such a reduction could create a ripple effect in higher education by increasing barriers to necessary accommodations and supports, resulting in students missing academic opportunities that could prepare them for enrollment in institutions of higher education. In the absence of federal mandates and enforcement, states and local districts might cut back or insufficiently fund special education services, leading to inequitable access and a fragmented system of support across the country. 

Teaching Strategies and Recommendations

Starting Point for Growth: Self-Reflection & Awareness 

Within the university system, disability-based oppression often manifests in physical structures, academic policies, and social environments on campus. These barriers have persisted, and students have experienced those inequities in educational systems both at the university-level and prior to entering university-level programs. 

To counteract the psychosocial and material harms caused by disability-based oppression in the university, it is crucial to reflect on how, as instructors, we can create safer classroom environments that not only consider but uplift and celebrate the knowledge and experiences that students oppressed under systems of disability inequity bring with them. 

One great way to start is to reflect on how our biases may manifest in our teaching. To better understand your implicit gender-based biases in a safe, private, and nonjudgmental way, consider taking advantage of Harvard University’s Implicit Association Tests (IAT). Please note, within disability, it is critical to consider the intersectionality of disability, i.e., people with disabilities have many identities and, depending on the context, experience varying levels of privilege and oppression due to unique lived experiences that are impactful in positive and negative ways. Consider completing one or more IAT related to disability to learn more about how intersectionality contributes to instances of bias within your teaching practice. 

Before Teaching

Consider the disability justice framework as inspiration for your proactive work towards greater accessibility in your coursework. The ones most aligned to teaching are listed here with suggestions for ways to build on them within your instruction. Sins Invalid is committed to social and economic justice for all people with disabilities and has collectively created the 10 principles of disability justice

Intersectionality is the concept of multiple issues and identities that impact and tell the story of disabled people. 

Consider addressing DSP Accommodations and UC Berkeley Accommodations Hub in your syllabus as a responsive measure to ensure student accessibility supports are being met proactively and mental health help-seeking guidance is transparent and welcoming. What other ways can you incorporate accessible syllabus design and accessible content design that allows for room for risk-taking and mistake-making as an expected part of the learning process? Also, consider how this proactive work towards digital materials accommodations can set your course up to be WCAG 2.1 AA aligned. See guidance on RTL's Accessibility in Teaching & Learning webpage and the Digital Accessibility Program (DAP) resource at UC Berkeley.

Leadership of those most impacted is the concept of learning from those who are most impacted.  

Partner with disabled student organizations and staff who serve them to better understand their needs and be sensitive to their barriers. A new RTL-sponsored podcast, Finding Space, is working to amplify these stories of students, staff, and faculty with disabilities. 

Recognizing wholeness is the concept of seeing that disabled people “have inherent worth outside of commodity relations and capitalist notions of productivity. Each person is full of history and life experience.” 

Reject deficit-mindsets by including accessible documents as a part of your instructional practice, seeing this effort as a valuable teaching strategy worthy of effort. Using systems such as Ally within bCourses and RTL consultations to address accessibility issues is a great next step to ensure documents are accessible for all students. 

Interdependence is the concept of working towards solutions together, mutually supporting one another 

How can student collaboration towards learning objectives support interdependence on one another? Consider two access points for any instructional material using your bCourse as a digital repository and seek out ways to engage students in peer partnerships that support learning. Book a bCourses consultation to set up these learning opportunities with technology tools. 

Collective liberation is the concept demanding that “No body or mind can be left behind – only moving together can we accomplish the revolution we require.”

In order to celebrate one another's contributions and inclusion, consider ways to decolonize your syllabus & course materials. Instructors can consider course reading materials and ensure they comprehensively represent all contributors to the discipline. Frequently, the curriculum can be a barrier in its design and lack of inclusiveness. 

During Teaching

  • Communicate & listen to your students: check-in with students who have accommodations to be sure that barriers are not still impacting their access and learning. Consider sending an email at the beginning of the semester with both the student and their DSP caseload manager proposing how accommodations will be met and outlining any specific curriculum or class contexts that can be helpful to plan ahead of time to remove more barriers.

  • Scaffold: Teaching in multiple-level classrooms can provide you with ideas for teaching classes with multiple levels of understanding and background knowledge. A multi-level classroom can be described as one where students have various levels of learning needs and instructors differentiate their instruction to support a wide range of learners. These types of learning environments are aligned with teaching students with disabilities who may need some refresher content or more opportunities to engage with ideas before moving on to the next topic, which allows for more processing time. 

  • Proactive inclusion: Consider UDL approaches to learning objectives that increase student access and eliminate barriers using online teaching tools and strategies. Related to scaffolding, it also helps us consider the multiplicity of ways students may be impacted by disability; some disabilities are visible, such as a physical impairment, while others are “invisible,” and proactively making our classroom context more accessible helps support a wider range of students.

  • Student Engagement: Implement active learning strategies to support more student engagement. Active learning is grounded in constructivist theory where students are actively building their own knowledge through experimentation, play, and iterative concept design.

After Teaching

Teaching Resources, Exemplars, & Strategies

Overarching Strategies:

Be proactive

Create more accessible learning environments. The goals of UDL are to increase access and usability for the greatest number of people possible while also continuously growing the benefits of accessible learning in more ways than originally imagined. If questions emerge regarding physical environments on campus, connect with the Berkeley Accessibility and Compliance Office.

Be responsive

Support individualized student learning needs and recognize the ongoing benefit of responding to student learning needs throughout the learning process. Review guidance on UC Berkeley’s Academic Accommodations Hub and Digital Accessibility Program (DAP) to find more information regarding student accommodations.

Be engaged

By using a social justice approach to teaching and learning, consider how students are marginalized within social, classroom, and content environments, and review the UC Office of the President's information regarding accommodations and laws governing disability justice.

DSP faculty liaisons provide advice, strategy suggestions, and consultation regarding specific student accommodation needs. Please review our 2023 Q & A Interview with Drs. Justin Davidson & Jonah Levy.  

Additional Resources

Reference List

  1. Campbell, Fiona Kumari. 2008. “Exploring Internalized Ableism Using Critical Race Theory.” Disability & Society 23 (2): 151–162. doi:10.1080/09687590701841190.

  2. Evans, N. J., Broido, E. M., Brown, K. R., & Wilke, A. K. (2017). Disability in higher education: A social justice approach. John Wiley & Sons.

  3. Moriña, A., Sandoval, M., & Carnerero, F. (2020). Higher education inclusivity: When the disability enriches the university. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(6), 1202-1216.

  4. Rao, K. (2021). Inclusive Instructional Design: Applying UDL to Online Learning. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 10(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.59668/223.3753

  5. Shakespeare, Tom. 2014. Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited. 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge. 

  6. Smith, S. A., Woodhead, E., & Chin-Newman, C. (2021). Disclosing accommodation needs: exploring experiences of higher education students with disabilities. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 25(12), 1358-1374.

  7.  Thurber, A., &  Bandy, J. (2018). Creating Accessible Learning Environments. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/creating-accessible-learning-environments/.

  8. Wong, A. (Ed.) (2020). Disability Visibility: First-person stories from the twenty-first century. Vintage, Chicago, IL. 

  9. Zidani, S. (2021). Whose pedagogy is it anyway? Decolonizing the syllabus through a critical embrace of difference. Media, Culture & Society, 43(5), 970-978. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720980922

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