Telework during COVID-19: exposing ableism in U.S. higher education

Abstract

Abelism, like the many other ‘isms,’ pervades the rules and norms within the U.S. higher education system. Through a first person narrative, this article explores one person’s perspective and experience with the accommodation process - first, as a person without a dis/ability serving as an Americans with Dis/abilities coordinator and then as a faculty member with a dis/ability. It also documents the miraculous ability to institute telework accommodations within weeks when people without dis/abilities needed it due to COVID-19 and consequently exposes one form of ableism in the U.S. post-secondary educational system. The article concludes with a call to anti-ableism and intersectional activism to expand higher education.