Resisting the Tick Box: Reflexive Use of Educational Technologies in Developing Student Identities and Challenging Higher Education Constructions of Disability Based on Notions of Conformity and Consistency

Abstract

For many students, impairments such as chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, epilepsy, or diabetes have the potential to vary in intensity, and thus impact, on participation in learning activities and on self-perception/identity. This article considers some of the factors that may be of influence on the ways in which students with such fluctuating or recurring impairments enact identity within higher education in the United Kingdom. In particular, the article highlights the potential role of higher education discourses based on notions of consistency and conformity in constructing disablement in finite ways. It also reviews the potential for reflexive use of communication technologies in offering students ways of promoting or masking selected aspects of identity. The article concludes with some insights into possibilities for the use of online communication modes in offering flexibility and autonomy in managing student identity and challenging institutional discourses of disability as fixed or finite.