Allies for Inclusion: Disability and Equity in Higher Education: ASHE Volume 39, Number 5

Here is an overview of students with disabilities in postsecondary institutions and the importance of allies in their lives. It is a call to action for faculty, staff, and administrators in all facets of higher education, and emphasizes the shared responsibility toward students with disabilities and toward creating meaningful change.

This monograph begins with a look into the future of disability education. How will students create their own identities? Will there be a need for disability accommodations or will a universally designed world eliminate that current necessity? It also looks at the past, with discussions of disability legislation such as the ADA of 1990, the impact of Supreme Court decisions, descriptions of college students with disabilities, and the paradigm shift from the medical “deficit” model of disability to one that focuses on the individual’s lived experience as a social construct.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks in multiple disciplines, disability identity development is explained, ally development is defined, and disability services are explored. The monograph ends with a discussion of where disability education is now and how faculty, staff, and administrators will continue to be allies of inclusion for students in the years to come.

This is the 5th issue of the 39th volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.