Pearson's Statement On The Social Construction Of Disability

When operating from a critical disability framework, professionals in the higher education field must remember Pearson’s (2010) statement on the social construction of disability: “people with disabilities are not born, but made by society” (as cited in Peña et al., 2016, p. 91). In the context of the college environment, the institution may further engender the status of “disability” on their students. This “disability” status may be seen when universities do not fully accommodate their students’ needs, or make the accommodation a spectacle on campus, such as a completely separate wheelchair entrance on the opposite side of a campus building.

As student affairs professionals, we must analyze how students with disabilities experience the

As interactions become more complex there is the need for buffers to support the individual, which draws on Astin’s (1984) theory of student involvement and Sanford’s (1966) idea of challenge and support. However, what do these “buffers” look like for students with disabilities? When individuals have issues regarding their accommodations, they are often told to self-advocate. This is supported by Vaccaro, Cano, and Newman (2015) who state that through self-advocacy, students will be able to communicate their “needs and wants and make decisions about the supports necessary to achieve them” (p.

If a student’s disability is their most salient identity throughout every context of their life in higher education, this will affect their overall experience, such as making friends, participating in class, etc. In addition, students who are “out” in their disability identity may feel the need to overcompensate. Johnstone’s (2004) second category of disability identity states that these students “feel compelled to perform at high levels to overcome obstacles to prove to others they are not impaired or deemphasize it” (Guido et al., 2016, p. 234). Since universities have furthered the social construction of disability, these students feel that they must prove to others they are more than their identity of “disabled,” and that they can perform to the same caliber as any “normal” college