Dismantling Ableism Survey: Indigenous Participants' Experiences

Introduction

The Dismantling Ableism: Institutional Action and Accountability survey (DAS) was administered in November-December 2023 to University of Manitoba students, faculty, and staff who self-identified as disabled or as having chronic health conditions.1,2 

Disability is not a singular experience, nor are disabled people a homogeneous group. People encounter different barriers and forms of ableism. Moreover, two people with similar impairments will also experience disability differently as personality, circumstance, privilege, and intersectional identities contribute toward their complex identity. 

“Experiences of inequities are particular to the type of chronic health issues [or] disability. When paired with intersectional issues such as race, class, etc., these inequities become more pervasive.” 

This results report is one in a series highlighting student, staff, and faculty experiences of ableism and inaccessibility at UM. It is intended to diversify understandings of ableism in academia through the presentation of disaggregated results that indicate differences among those who may share one or more broad socio-demographic characteristics such as Indigenous, racialized, or disability identities, gender, or sexuality.3 We emphasize disaggregated data to acknowledge intersectional marginalization to decenter Whiteness, colonialism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and cisnormativity within anti-ableism action. 

Comparing the experiences of intersectionally marginalized groups is not intended to set these groups in competition with one another or to focus only on barriers and the ways in which they are “disadvantaged”, rather than their agency and vast array of achievements and skills. Rather, disaggregated analysis emphasizes experiences and voices that are often overlooked to pinpoint the concrete actions that will have the most widespread positive impacts on the entire UM community.

Language

The DAS used identity-first language (disabled persons) rather than person-first language (persons with disabilities) to acknowledge the disabling effect of social, environmental, and institutional barriers which hinder disabled individuals’ full participation in society, including university life.4

Similarly, the survey also used the term “chronic health conditions”, broadly defined as any condition, including mental health conditions, that is continuing or that occurs again and again over a long period of time, which in interaction with various barriers, may hinder full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.5

Positionality

Researchers bring their experiences, identities, and biases to their work. The DAS team members identify with various systemically marginalized identities, including disability and chronic health-related identities. These lived experiences are assets, but we recognize that our personal intersections of privilege also influence our work. Our commitment to research quality includes an openness to concerns and criticisms. Please feel free to send feedback on the DAS results to the Office of Equity Transformation at Equity@umanitoba.ca.

Footnotes

1. The survey was funded by the Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity.
2. The final sample size for the DAS, after data cleaning, is 544.
3. For example, do those who identify with cognitive disabilities feel more or less safe at UM than those identifying with physical or sensory disabilities? Do those who identify as disabled and as either bisexual or pansexual encounter more ableist microaggressions than their heterosexual counterparts?
4. Language choices were explained in the survey introduction; nevertheless, the DAS project team respects that members of disability and chronic health communities have diverse language preferences, including person with a disability, chronically ill, and episodic disability, for example. The team is grateful for all of the feedback we received regarding language and it will inform our work going forward.
5. Adapted from Bernell, S., & Howard, S. W. (2016). Use your words carefully: What is a chronic disease? Frontiers in Public Health, 4, 159. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00159 and the United Nations.

Report content

This summary highlights some of the experiences of Indigenous respondents.

Indigenous identities

  • Overall, 11% of the survey sample identifies as Indigenous (12% of students; 12% of staff; and 9% of faculty
    • Indigenous representation among the survey sample appears to exceed Indigenous representation among UM students (9% in 2022-20236) and employees7
  • 8% of Indigenous survey participants further identify as Métis (8% of students and 8% of faculty and staff), and 4% identify as First Nations (Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anishininewuk, Dakota, Oyate, and Denesuline, etc.) (4% of students and 4% of faculty and staff)
  • Many additional Indigenous identities were specified, but low case counts prohibit the reporting of these identities to protect privacy and confidentiality8 
  • The majority of Indigenous respondents are 25-44 years old (53%), 24% are aged 45+, and 23% are under the age of 25
  • The majority are neither parents nor guardians of children under the age of 18 (71%), nor do they provide significant support to adults over the age of 18 (83%)
  • Nearly half of Indigenous respondents mostly or fully work or study at UM in-person (48%), while 21% are mostly or fully remote and 31% participate via a mix of both in-person and remote activities

Footnotes

6. Office of Institutional Analysis 
7. Choosing to share one’s Indigenous identities is a highly personal decision, influenced by a number of factors. Accordingly, Indigenous identities may be present across UM to a greater degree than is reflected by official institutional statistics. 
8. Even though 5 individuals is a common minimum standard for statistical reporting, the combination of identities (e.g., Indigenous and disabled, or Indigenous and a faculty member, etc.) increases the risk of unintentional identification. Accordingly, we increased our minimum case threshold to better protect individuals’ privacy and confidentiality.

Disability and chronic health

  • Indigenous respondents are relatively more likely to identify as having chronic health conditions (61%) than as disabled or with another disability identity
  • More than half indicate their disabilities or chronic health conditions are only sometimes noticeable to others (55%)
  • Indigenous respondents are more likely to identify with cognitive disabilities and health conditions than physical, sensory, or mental or emotional health-related disabilities; and they are significantly more likely than non-Indigenous respondents to identify with cognitive disabilities and health conditions (66% vs. 45%9)
  • More than 75% of Indigenous respondents identify with multiple disabilities and chronic health conditions; and Indigenous respondents are significantly more likely than non-Indigenous respondents to identify as having two or more chronic health conditions10

Footnotes

9. X2 (2, 509) = 10.3, p =<.01, V = 0.14  
10. X2 (1, 324) = 5.3, p =<.05
 

Experiences at UM

Systemic ableist barriers are disproportionately negatively impacting members of the UM community who identify as both Indigenous and as having disabilities and chronic health conditions, among other identities. 

Indigenous survey respondents are significantly11 more likely than non-Indigenous respondents to:

  • Feel unsatisfied with their current level of participation at UM
  • Feel less safe personally and believe their campus is less safe for disabled people and those with chronic health conditions in general
  • Feel less comfortable about sharing their disability and health identities at UM
  • Believe UM is less engaged with dismantling ableism (e.g., taking responsibility for systemic barriers and taking action to dismantle these barriers)
  • Personally experience negative impacts of ableist attitudes (e.g., feel they must work harder to prove they belong at UM or feel pressure to downplay the impact of their disability, etc.)
  • Experience more institutional barriers, overall (e.g., barriers getting to campus, finding suitable work or study spaces, barriers related to a lack of hybrid work or study options, etc.)
  • Experience more information and technology (IT) barriers, overall12
  • Experience more ableist microaggressions both in-person and virtually (e.g., others assume respondents need help or that all their capabilities are affected by their disability and health identities)
  • Experience more exclusion and mistreatment both in-person and virtually
  • Experience more emotional exhaustion
  • Encounter more inequities (e.g., access to professional development and skills training and promotion and advancement opportunities) (this finding is specific to Indigenous staff vs. non-Indigenous staff only)

Footnotes

11. Refers to t-test and ANOVA results of multi-item indices that achieved statistical significance at the .05, .01, or .001 alpha levels. 
12. The DAS was administered in November-December 2023. As such, the results may not capture recent (and ongoing) accessibility improvements to specific information and communications systems at UM, including the work undertaken to meet the Accessibility for Manitobans Act Information and Communications Standard (AMA-IC), and WCAG 2.1 standards.

How to move forward

The ableist barriers experienced by Indigenous survey participants are inseparable from the on-going impacts of intersecting oppressions, such as colonization and homophobia and transphobia, as described by one student survey participant:

“I am currently experiencing mental health issues related to Indigenous intergenerational trauma generational effects and now it’s hard for me to attend in person events.”

  • Less than half of Indigenous respondents (45%) identify as heterosexual
  • About one-quarter (23%) of Indigenous respondents indicated a gender other than man or woman; and the majority identified either as women or with a systemically marginalized genders13 (e.g., Two Spirit14, transgender, or agender, etc.)
  • Nearly two-thirds of Indigenous respondents experienced difficulties meeting their necessary costs in 2022-2023 (e.g., food, housing, transportation, and medical care, etc.) and Indigenous respondents are significantly more likely than non-Indigenous respondents to have reported such difficulties (64.5% vs. 36%15)

As such, actions that address intersectional systemic inequities are necessary for every Indigenous student, staff, and faculty member to fully excel at the University of Manitoba.

Immediate actions

Overall, Indigenous participants told us that the following actions would make the greatest impact toward dismantling ableism at UM:

  1. Coordinate accommodations and support services (21% ranked #1)
  2. Ensure disabled people and those with chronic health conditions are valued members of the UM community (19% ranked #1)
  3. Improve physical infrastructure and accessibility (16% ranked #1)

Footnotes

12. Respondents could choose multiple answers for the gender and sexualities questions so totals for these variables can exceed 100%.
13. Two Spirit was a response option for both the gender and sexualities questions.
14. Two Spirit was a response option for both the gender and sexualities questions. 
15. X2 (2, 506) = 20.2, p =<.001, V = 0.20

Dismantling Ableism Survey (DAS) Keep reading

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