Abstract
This qualitative study explores the experiences and perspectives of disabled student activists involved in the creation of disability cultural centers (DCCs) on college and university campuses in the United States. The main purpose is to advance recognition of disability as a marginalized student identity on college campuses in need of safe spaces of belonging and refuge from ableism, and to promote the continued expansion of DCCs as meeting this need. Combining Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) methodology with narrative inquiry, the study aimed to explore four research questions: 1) How do disabled students describe the reasons propelling them to create DCCs? 2) How do disabled students describe their roles in the creation of DCCs? 3) What do disabled students perceive as the facilitators and barriers to engaging with universities to create DCCs? 4) How do disabled student activists describe the benefits of DCCs to the disabled student population and the larger campus climate? DisCrit informs the study design and analysis by promoting counternarratives and counter-storytelling, taking an asset-based approach to explore disabled student activism in the context of DCC creation.
Semi-structured interviews with seven disabled student activists who created DCCs at five universities were used as the sole method for data collection. The data analysis resulted in two different ways of representing the data: participant profiles and themes across stories. Profiles provide a narrative description of each participant’s story, humanizing their experience by detailing their personal background, reasons for involvement and role with the DCC, experience engaging with universities to create the DCC, and perspective regarding the benefits of the DCC. Next, themes across stories were analyzed to elucidate how disabled student activists pushed for the creation of DCCs (surfacing themes of actions, people, and conditions), and why the establishment of DCCs was important to them (surfacing themes of ableism, counterspaces, impact on the larger campus, and legacy work).
Key findings indicate disabled student activists engaged in campusmaking (Comeaux et al., 2021), creating DCCs as a counterspace and reprieve from ableism, a “launchpad” to help disabled students navigate ableist systems, and a way to change the narrative to recognize disability as an culture and valued source of diversity on campus. Findings related to how participants created DCCs were also discussed: working both with and against the administration; obtaining support from disabled leadership, allies, and cross-movement solidarity; gathering data and submitting proposals; and building momentum with speakers and events centering disability culture. Several recommendations for educational leaders and disabled student activists are offered to facilitate the creation of future DCCs, inform policy and practice in the inclusion of disability within DEI initiatives, and create opportunities for meaningful allyship.