Written by Ashten Vassar-Cain with support from the DAC team.
***The link to the interview can be found here
The Disability & Access Collective blog team recently had the opportunity to speak with Erin Scanlon, one of the first Accessibility Fellows through UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This fellowship is focused on faculty led initiatives that center accessibility either through research, professional development, or other devoted projects. Erin Scanlon is one of three of the CLAS Accessibility Fellows for the 2022-2023 school year and was eager to share her project with our team.
Erin Scanlon is an assistant Professor in Residence who teaches Physics at the Avery Point Campus. As part of her Accessibility focused project, Professor Scanlon is leading a Faculty Learning Community. The Learning Community will consist of a group of faculty that work together over the course of 10 weeks to complete training, implement new accessibility measures in their classrooms, and bring this knowledge back to their respective departments.
While Professor Scanlon is used to teaching STEM, she wants the information to be accessible to professors of a wide variety of disciplines. She shared that she has grappled with colleagues questioning the validity of her research on access and disability in STEM. Rather than being discouraged by this, she decided to continue to pursue centering accessibility, and encouraging other faculty members to do so as well. Erin acknowledges that she is in a position to hold space for these necessary conversations with her peers and is hopeful that approaching her colleagues directly will be the best way to spread the message. The Faculty Learning Community consults with the Center for Students with Disabilities, NEAG School of Education and Information Technology Services, as well as a panel of students who speak about their experiences living with (and disclosing) disabilities academic settings.
In the interview, the word “stigma” was mentioned repeatedly. Despite the legal protections that students with disabilities have, many students still feel hesitant to disclose or unable to seek accommodations through the channels that currently exist. Conversely, professors and faculty are not used to having conversations that center access, or may not know how to respond or accommodate the variable needs of students. Erin reiterates the need to meet faculty where they are at in order to ensure that the work reaches as many people as possible.
“All of my research is framed using this idea that everybody, regardless of if you have a disability diagnosis of not, has a variety of needs and abilities and interests. And it’s our job to support that variability in learners.”
Professor Scanlon recognizes the need for systemic change in the way that institutions like UConn strategize around accessibility, and believes that openly combatting the stigma will have positive affects for students and faculty who may not identify with having a disability.
“I think that doing this work is not just about faculty. It’s not just about students. It’s not just about administration. It’s about everywhere. Accessibility and being inclusive is a multifaceted multilevel problem that everybody should be involved with.”
Through involvement with the Faculty Learning Community, Professor Scanlon is hoping that faculty will be able to bring this knowledge back to their departments in tangible ways, whether that be implementing aspects of Universal Design for Learning or other inclusive teaching practices, and/or developing a better understanding of legal protections and political frameworks related to disability.
However, Erin has made it very clear that just because the research she is doing has the potential to help non disabled students, she will continue to fight for access regardless. She believes that the work that is being done to combat ableism is inherently valuable, and that sidelining interests of disabled students is complicit in the ableist structures of higher education.
Professor Scanlon knows that this kind of undertaking is daunting for many, especially when systemic change cannot be achieved overnight. In our interview, she reiterated that even though it may seem slow to reap the benefits of such advocacy, the work is important and needed.
“Ableism is endemic in our society and we have an obligation to dismantle those systems of oppression for their own sake. And yes, it can be helpful for a wider range of students, and that’s why we should do it; and we should do it just because it’s going to help disabled people too!”
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