Intersectionality and Self Advocacy Exploring the SelfAdvocacy Experiences

Intersectionality and Self. Advocacy: Exploring the Self-Advocacy Experiences of Disabled Graduate Students of Color Julia Rose Karpicz, MA University of California, Los Angeles

Researcher Background • As a disability services practitioner, I saw selfadvocacy defined in resources as: • “Clearly expressing your needs. • Being able to articulate your strengths and weakness in learning. • Asking for help as needed. • Engaging in appropriate personal decision making. ” – UNLV Disability Resource Center • I felt I was missing the resources to support disabled students of color who were navigating racial bias and microaggressions in their self-advocacy.

Conceptual Framework • Test et al. (2005) framework of self-advocacy. Synthesizing research on self-advocacy from over two decades. • Highlights knowledge of self, knowledge of rights, communication, and leaderships as key components to self-advocacy. • There is a lack of empirical literature engaging with intersectionality and self-advocacy

Theoretical Framework • Disability Studies Critical Race Theory (Dis. Crit) “theorizes about the ways in which race, racism, dis/ability and ableism are built into the interactions, procedures, discourses, and institutions of education, which affect students of color with dis/abilities qualitatively differently than white students with dis/abilities” (Annamma et al. , 2013, p. 7). • Developed a qualitative research study to explore how racism and ableism shape the way disabled graduate students of color experience, understand, and make decisions about self-advocacy

Data Collection and Analysis ● Purposive sampling: Six participants who identify as disabled students of color, enrolled in a graduate program currently or within the past calendar year. Participants received a $25 Visa gift card. ● Recruitment: Listservs (DSSHE, AWD), social media, fliers on-campus ● Interviews: Two hour-long* semi-structured interviews ● Artefact Elicitation: Using the framework to elicit discussion around what comprises self-advocacy in their experience

Participants Name Disability Race Grad. Institution Maria Blind, ADHD, Chronic Health Latinx Private, East Coast Ariel LD, Mental Health, Chronic Health Latinx Public, West Coast Gene Blind Black Public, Southern Paula Chronic Health Latinx Public, West Coast Sam LD Black, mixed Private, East Coast Naomi Mental Health, Chronic Health Mixed race Private, West Coast Evette Black Public, Midwest; Private, East Coast Blind, Mental Health

Preliminary Findings How race shapes disabled graduate students’ self-advocacy.

Race at the Center • Multiple participants discussed race as shaping all of the components of the self-advocacy model. • “I think race should be at the center [of the model] … I would use a lot of the same things that they use here but it would be more circular and race would be interjecting with each one” – Ariel • “[Race and culture] influenced what parts or how much I knew myself, how much of my rights I knew at the time, how I communicated, and my leadership style. ” - Sam

Race and Knowledge of Self and Rights • Participants discussed race and racism as shaping the ways they are perceived and treated by others and thus how they need to interact with the environment in order to get support or address barriers to access. • “It’s not just the disability, the disability is then compounded by your race, your ethnicity. . . look into these factors, not only just knowing yourself but also realizing how the different intersections of your identities are going to affect the help that you’re receiving and the help that you’re going to have to advocate for, for yourself” – Naomi • “. . . think about what else is important to you, intersecting identities, how do your identities affect the way you obtain accommodations? Or combat access barriers? Or do your daily life routine? ” – Maria

Race and Communication • Multiple participants described having to adjust or consider the way they communicate based on how they were being racialized in interactions with faculty and staff. • “I have literally put a lot of thought into how I present myself … I rarely meet the “stereotype” or heuristic of a person that’s got a disability that’s blind and male … [I’m a] 6’ 1”, 250 pounds, very muscular Black man who looks like he is mid-30 s even though I’m almost 55, so I have to *switches to a higher pitch* be jovial, cuz’ a lot of time they see big, Black, strong guy” – Gene • “The way that you communicate and assert yourself is also formed by race, and sometimes your racialized communication style has to change to fit the institution” - Ariel • “I just want to say what’s on my mind, but I also have to consider race. [Being perceived as] like the stereotypical [person from a] Latinx community: you don’t know much, you’re just loud” Maria

Intersectionality and Communication • Participants discussed race and racism as shaping what they felt comfortable addressing and/or what they needed to filter in order to navigate inaccessible classroom spaces. • “I always think about it, it's always on my mind, if I choose to disclose or not to disclose, race is always something that filters through that, it helps me make that decision … I also think about the professor and how I think they’re going to interact. As a person of color I usually can tell within a few moments how the interaction’s going to go and I’ll make my decision then and there, there have been multiple times when I have just struggled through because I knew that mentioning it was going to do absolutely nothing…” – Sam • “I don’t know how to advocate with race and disability at the same time…I had to think about race secondly simply because in order for me to pass the course, I needed accommodations” – Maria

Implications for Practice

Who do I speak to about race and disability? • None of the participants described having supportive conversations with disability services staff regarding race, racism, and/or intersectionality. • “What was challenging was that I shared an experience [of racial bias related to self-advocacy around accommodations] with a [DS] staff member, I was asking like ‘how do I navigate this, who do I speak with? ’ and they were like ‘Disability services only does disability services work’ … it was discouraging” – Maria • “If there was a conversation about disability and race, it was probably more along the lines of, ‘well, the Black students, you know, they got admitted, but they just can’t cut it. ’ … it was a negative conversation or whether or not myself or other students of color actually had the skills and ability to complete college or if we were viewed as being say lazy or as not really prepared” Hattie

Address ableism as an intersecting form of oppression • Avoid “[choosing] not to see that intersection” (Bell, 2006, p. 279) • Education and awareness: Important for staff to be familiar with some of the ways race and racism may shape students’ self-advocacy. How students of color have been impacted by the ways ableism supports and is supported by racism. • Recognizing that “stairs, small print, and florescent lights, in other words, are not the only relevant barriers to access for disabled people” and understanding how the work of other offices on campus (ex: multicultural center, food pantry, student legal services) may contribute to intersectional access for disabled students of color (Kafer, 2019).

Who do I speak to about self-advocacy? • None of the participants in the study discussed having received support around the development of their self-advocacy from their campus disability services office • “I have not seen, nor have I heard of any disability services office personnel that has ‘adequately’ shown people how to be self advocates, they might say ‘you should advocate on your behalf’ but that’s also like me saying, ‘hey, you should go out there and hit a twenty point jump shot. ’” – Gene

Talking about self-advocacy with students • Get an understanding of what the student thinks is going on: Students were aware and able to name how experiences of racism shaped their interactions around access on-campus. • Open the door in the interactive process to dialogue around other salient identities and how those have shaped their experiences around access and accommodation. • Collaborate and dialogue with other offices on-campus around what self-advocacy means and involves for students with multiple marginalized identities. • Be mindful around deficit-framing: consider how power may impact whether certain forms of self-advocacy are possible or effective for students.

Self-advocacy as an external process • “I can just scream my lungs out demanding for accommodation, but if the other parties are not willing to listen then … I think you should look into that. What are the mechanisms that facilitate the communication? ” – Paula • How to support a campus environment where students’ selfadvocacy can be effectively received? • In faculty and staff trainings: discuss self-advocacy and helpful ways of engaging with student self-advocacy. Address ableism as intersecting with other forms of oppression in faculty and staff trainings around disability and self-advocacy.

References • Annamma, S. A. , Connor, D. , & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability critical race studies (Dis. Crit): theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 1 -31. • Bell, C. (2006). Introducing white disability studies: A modest proposal. In E. Lennard (Ed. ), The disability studies reader. New York, NY: Routledge. • Fleming, A. R. , Oertle, K. M. , & Plotner, A. J. (2017). Student voices: Recommendations for improving postsecondary experiences of students with disabilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 30(4), 309 -326 • Kafer, A. (2019). Keynote. Pacific Western Disability Studies Symposium. May 2019. • Test, D. W. , Fowler, C. H. , Wood, W. M. , Brewer, D. M. , & Eddy, S. (2005). A conceptual framework of self-advocacy for students with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 26(1), 43 -54. • University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Disability Resource Center. (2019). Self-advocacy. Retrieved from https: //www. unlv. edu/drc/students/self-advocacy