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Intersectional, Anti-Ableist Classroom Opportunities��San José State University�Institute for Emancipatory Education�Intersectional Disability Studies Strand��Saili S. Kulkarni, Ph.D.

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Sudha Krishnan, Ed.D.

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Moderator: Dr. Emily Nusbaum, Ph.D.��

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Agenda

  1. Introductions
  2. Ableism and how it translates for multiply marginalized disabled youth
  3. Enacting Disability Justice: Overview and practice examples from the 10 principles
  4. Creating Inclusive Design Policy Activity
  5. Materials Integrating Disability into the Curriculum
  6. Disability Awareness Activity
  7. Your Turn

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Visual Description Introductions

  1. Begin by finding a comfortable seat in this space
  2. Take in three deep breaths
  3. We will be doing visual description introductions. This means that you will provide a visual description of yourself in addition to your name and preferred gender pronouns. We will model this for you.

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Introduction to Ableism

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Speaker Helena Donato-Sapp

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Brainstorm Activity

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Turn and Talk

How might ableism show up in the classroom?

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Intersectionality

Disability cannot be understood in isolation from other identities. People experience ableism in combination with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and other systems of oppression. Disability justice requires centering the experiences of those most impacted—especially disabled people of color, queer and trans disabled people, and immigrants.

"We do not live single-issue lives." – Audre Lorde

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Practice

Consider…

  1. Start by reflecting on your own identity
  2. Provide opportunities students to take risks and make mistakes without excessive error correction
  3. Universal Design for Learning

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Leadership of those most impacted

People who live at the intersections of multiple forms of oppression should lead the work. This principle challenges hierarchical, white-dominated structures and centers the wisdom and knowledge of disabled people of color and LGBTQIA+ communities.

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Practice

Consider…

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  1. Using materials created by disabled authors of color
  2. Asking youth of color with disabilities to lead their own IEPs or co-design their own instruction

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Disabled Authors

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Anti-capitalist

Disability justice resists the commodification of bodies and productivity-based value systems. It critiques how capitalism devalues people who are seen as “unproductive” and pushes back against systems that exploit labor while marginalizing disabled people.

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Being unable to work does not make a person less worthy of dignity and respect.

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Cross Movement Solidarity

Disability justice is not just about disability—it requires solidarity with other social justice movements, including racial justice, climate justice, reproductive justice, and prison abolition. Liberation is collective, not siloed.

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Practice

Consider…

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  1. Discuss intersectional difference within the classroom
  2. Highlight the historical importance of multiply marginalized disabled individuals in current access

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Wholeness of the Person

Every person has inherent worth and dignity, regardless of ability, cognition, communication, or independence. People should not have to prove their value by being “high-functioning” or assimilating to dominant norms.

“We value people as they are—whole, complex, messy.”

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Sustainability

Disability justice values collective care, rest, and sustainability. It challenges the burnout culture of activist spaces and embraces the need for care webs and mutual aid.

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Rest and interdependence are resistance.

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Practice

Consider…

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  1. Regularly provide students with unstructured activities
  2. Opportunities to move around the classroom, engage in learning outside of the classroom space

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Cross Disciplinary Solidarity

This principle urges solidarity across different kinds of disabilities—physical, cognitive, sensory, psychiatric, and invisible. It recognizes that the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities, for example, may be marginalized even within disability communities.

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Interdependence

Disability justice reclaims the idea of interdependence as beautiful and necessary. Instead of valuing independence as the ideal, it acknowledges that everyone relies on others in some way. Interdependence builds collective strength and resilience.

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Practice

Consider…

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  1. Collective critiques of everyday ableist practices

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Collective Access

Rather than focusing solely on legal accommodations, disability justice promotes collective access as a shared responsibility. This includes proactively creating accessible spaces and being open to flexibility and adaptation in real time.

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Practice

Consider…

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  1. Opportunities for peer supports and collaboration and creative ways to access instruction
  2. Co-generating classroom expectations

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Collective Liberation

No one is free until we all are. Disability justice is rooted in the belief that the liberation of disabled people is tied to the liberation of all people. The struggle against ableism is linked to struggles against racism, colonialism, and heteropatriarchy.

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Inclusive Classroom Policy Design

  • Identify rules that may unintentionally exclude students with disabilities (e.g., those with ADHD, ASD, sensory processing needs, or communication differences).

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  • Rewrite the rules to incorporate flexibility, student agency, and collective responsibility.

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Group Conversation

 Hints:

  • Are any of these rules rooted in compliance or control?
  • How can classroom norms support access, rather than punish difference?
  • Could you offer multiple ways to meet expectations?

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Integrating Disability into Curriculum

  • Include disability in thematic units on all topics (families, jobs)
  • WHO definition of disability when studying United Nations
  • Disability history and disability rights movement
  • Include literature with disability themes (The Giver, Brave New World, Harry Potter)
  • Include accessibility design, adaptive tools, in STEM curriculum
  • Eugenics movement and disability
  • Measurement for ramps in Math
  • Art contributions by disabled creators

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Building a Library on Disability Awareness

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Special Books by Special Kids

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Disability Awareness Activities

  1. Awareness around language when describing people with disability
  2. Social model of disability versus the medical model of disability
  3. Analyzing images of people with disabilities critically to attend to context, expression etc
  4. Demonstrating tools used by audiologists, doctors and other professionals
  5. Matching Activity: How do people with different impairments access physical/social/intellectual spaces?
  6. Guest presenter with a disability

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Avoid: Deficit Language; Simulations of Impairments

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Your Turn

Pick a previous or upcoming lesson topic from your classroom curriculum.

  • If you’re not an educator or don’t have access to this, please partner with someone in the room

How might you integrate an intersectional anti-ableist lens to this topic through the lesson activities or objectives?

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References and Further Readings

Baglieri, S., & Lalvani, P. (2019). Undoing ableism: Teaching about disability in K-12 classrooms. Routledge.

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Brown, L. X. Z…..(2023). (Re)centering the Knowledge of Disabled Activists, Poverty Scholars, and Community Scholars of Color to Transform Education. Disability Studies Quarterly.

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Moore, L. (2017). Black disabled art history 101. Xochitl Justice Press.

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