In today’s society, persons with disabilities actively work and build careers across various fields, including the academe. A faculty member with disabilities at University of New Mexico led a study on disabled educators’ experiences in higher education.
Marissa Greenberg serves as associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature. She co-authored the paper Confronting Disability Pasts, Constructing Disability Futures: Recommendations for Growing Access, Equity, and Inclusion for Disabled Faculty in Higher Education.
“The initial motivating factor was my lived experience as a faculty member with disabilities and wanting to better understand how my experience related to the experiences of others,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg combines disability studies with research on higher education and faculty experiences at UNM. She also led a 2022 survey of faculty with disabilities as the Academic Faculty Leadership Fellow with the Division for Change and Empowerment (DiCE).
For Greenberg, the research forms part of her ongoing advocacy work at the university. She carried out the initiative while serving as academic faculty leadership fellow for DiCE. She now holds the position of Special Advisor to the Vice President and conducts interviews with university leaders to gather research data. The research will help shape recommendations for the incoming provost and president expected to assume office in the coming months.
Greenberg and co-author Siobhán Cully sought to publish the article to share their research. They aimed to help academic leaders understand the historical harms experienced by faculty, staff, and students with disabilities.
“We’re hoping this sort of information can help administrators make informed choices based on past experiences in order to have a more successful future in serving everyone in our community,” Greenberg said.
Inside the Experiences of Faculty with Disabilities at UNM
The article highlights how UNM recognizes the value of faculty with disabilities.
“We as a university take a lot of pride in the diversity of our faculty and how that diversity reflects the diversity of our students,” Greenberg said.
But Greenberg says many faculty across higher education experience anxiety about disclosing their disabilities.
“There’s this culture of ableism where the idea is if you have a disability, you don’t belong in academia,” Greenberg said. “It’s this bias against any kind of body or mind that doesn’t fit a norm and is therefore seen as less-than.”
Faculty with disabilities may avoid disclosing their conditions even when they need accommodations. They often fear that the disclosure process will be time-consuming and energy-draining.
Study Offers Recommendations for Inclusive Higher Education
The research article identifies these shortcomings and offers recommendations to address them. The authors examine these failures and address them in ways that will improve conditions for faculty with disabilities.
The article emphasizes shifting compliance to inclusion within institutions of higher education and beyond. It states that institutions should move beyond “checking boxes” and minimal legal compliance. They should instead foster a culture of belonging that values faculty with disabilities.
“It starts with a conversation asking what they need and trusting that the faculty member knows themselves, knows their needs, and knows how to succeed,” Greenberg said. “Shifting away from compliance to real inclusion and having ourselves represented in our leadership and at all levels, is how institutions can serve their communities of folks with disabilities.”