Navigating environmental academia in a disabled body: an embodied autoethnography of ableism and advocacy

Abstract

Disabled scholars are seriously underrepresented in academia and experience some of the highest rates of harassment of any protected class within the post-secondary educational system. This paper recounts my personal experience as someone living with Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and endometriosis. Focusing on lived examples of ableism and approaches to advocacy, I highlight barriers to disabled individuals within the academic field of environmental science. I further argue that the pervasiveness of ableism within the environmental field is especially insidious, as such barriers limit the ability of ∼1/5 of the population to contribute to addressing environmental degradation. This account provides insights to administrators seeking to improve their organization’s treatment of disabled faculty and staff, to faculty and staff seeking to improve their treatment of disabled colleagues, and to disabled scholars currently navigating an ableist education system and job market.