The Rhetoric of Ableism in the Stories of Women with Disabilities: Emerging Political Presence at the Crossroads of Higher Education

ABSTRACT:

This is a report on a research project grounded in Disability Studies, guided by the principles of Emancipatory Research, supported by the PesquisarCOM approach, and using Comprehensive Interviewing as the methodology. This combination, strongly linked by the principles of ethics of care, enabled fluid and information-rich encounters. A support group composed of women with disabilities who currently or previously have experienced academic life accompanied the entire process. Nine women with disabilities, students in undergraduate and graduate programs at public Higher Education Institutions, were interviewed. The virtual platform Google Meet, chosen by the participants, was used. The main emerging concepts were: 1) Access fatigue exists and is experienced daily in academic relationships; 2) A care network is formed from experiences of forced intimacy within academia; and 3) The participants recognize experiencing oppression through different identity markers. Despite the concepts denoting that the academic environment retains its elitist, sexist, and ableist characteristics, making it an unwelcoming space that places responsibility on students with disabilities, the participants see their presence in this space as political, enhancing their commitment to the anti-ableist struggle.

KEYWORDS:
Access fatigue; Intersectionality; Forced intimacy; Ableism; Women with disabilities