Classroom spaces, physical and virtual, present numerous barriers to academic achievement for disabled students. Compound these spaces with ableist teaching practices and it is little wonder schooling traumatizes many students. “Today’s classrooms better meet the social and academic needs of students,” I’ve heard experts proclaim. Really? Which students? Surely not…
Tag: higher education
Posts about colleges and universities.
My grand plan to write daily fell apart on the night of April 18-19, after a losing battle with an online employment system used by a university. I spent three days preparing documents and then the HR system being used (Workday) choked while uploading my materials. The application was marked…
My wife and I have two neurodiverse young daughters. The girls are in the first and third grades, ages at which doctors verify or revise diagnoses. As parents, we reference my experiences with the health and education systems to evaluate the services provided to the girls. Reading Rosie Weldon’s autobiography…
Podcast Episode 0049; Season 04, Episode 13; November 24, 2020 Daniel Sansing and I discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic encourages colleges and universities to reconsider how we support autistic students in higher education. Is online education an accommodation or does it leave out important life skills? Daniel Sansing, MEd., Literacy and Second Language…
Podcast Episode 0038; Season 04, Episode 02; September 1, 2020 To my disappointment, but not surprise, the most-read blog post on The Autistic Me discusses the research on autistics making other people uncomfortable from the moment they meet us. I have taught business courses for several years. As part of…
In 2017, I set an older recording of my “Personal Teaching Statement” to kinetic text, an animated abridged transcript of sorts. The speech was more about my community than me, as I wanted to capture the classism, racism, and ableism I observed as a student. The intolerance of teachers is…
When I went off to graduate school in 2004, it was because I couldn’t stop chasing the dream of teaching. After the master’s degree, I chased the doctorate, trying to improve my chances at that elusive higher-education job. And then, the master of fine arts in 2017, capping a 13-year…
Podcast Episode 0027; Season 02, Episode 13; February 8, 2019 Too often I hear people suggest that education, especially higher education, is somehow the ideal career path for autistics. It might be good for some, but education has proven to be an impossible path for me. If I had focused on…
Podcast 0016; Season 02, Episode 02, September 11, 2018 Interview with visual artist Bobby Roma, part one. Bobby reflects on his experiences in the workplace and his pursuit of a career in the film industry. Bobby and I share a passion for filmmaking and the visual arts. We’re also close in age,…
The situation, which represents at least three or four emails I receive per school year: A student requests exemptions from collaborative assignments and participation grades. The professor declines. Disability studies office asks me what the right solution is to this conflict. More often than I would like, this occurs in…