Dismantling Ableism Survey: Inequities Identified by Students, Staff, and Faculty

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 unique needs of students, staff, and faculty.6

Please note these are limited results, stemming directly from select survey questions that were designed to examine the extent of specific institutional barriers and inequities experienced by students, staff, and faculty.

Footnotes

6. Only high-level results are presented in this summary. There are important differences within the categories of student, faculty, and staff that will be more fully detailed in upcoming results summaries, such as differences between students identifying with cognitive, as opposed to physical or sensory disabilities and chronic health conditions.

What needs to be done?

Overall, DAS respondents told us their experiences would be improved if UM: 

  • Better acknowledged the considerable diversity of disabilities and chronic health conditions among its community members; 
  • Improved physical accessibility across its campuses; and 
  • Created a significantly more inclusive, stigma-free culture.

Students

Student respondents primarily identified as undergraduates. Approximately two-thirds participate mostly via in-person activities and are engaged in paid employment; and three-quarters have been studying at UM for three or more years. Slightly more than half are under 25 years old. One in ten student respondents is a parent or guardian to children under the age of 18, and one in ten provides significant care or support to adults, aged 18 or older. Nearly half (44%) of students experienced difficulty meeting the costs of their necessary expenses, such as food, transportation, and medical care, in 2022-2023.

  • Students indicated they need:
    • More inclusive course assessment options (e.g., tests and assignments)
    • More accessible course materials (e.g., access to recorded lectures and sign language or braille translations)
    • More support to complete their degrees or programs as quickly as their non-disabled peers
    • More suitable mentors
    • More scholarship and funding opportunities
  • Students reported experiencing barriers7 at UM significantly more frequently than faculty and staff. Specific barriers that need to be accommodated for students include: 
    • Getting to campus
    • Meeting deadlines and due dates
    • Meeting other ableist work expectations (e.g., time spent on work, pace of work, and the amount of work expected to be completed in a given period of time, etc.)
    • Accessing appropriate work or study spaces 
  • Students perceive they have less social support at UM than faculty and staff.8 Students indicated they need more opportunities to feel like they are part of a community at UM and to interact with other disabled people and people with chronic health conditions who are open about these identities.
  • Students are more likely to serve as unpaid experts and educators on disability and accommodations9 than faculty and staff. Students need this labour to be appropriately recognized and valued. 
  • Students also indicated they need ableist classroom policies to be eliminated (e.g., inflexible attendance and deadline policies and lack of remote learning options); and need greater access to (and insurance coverage for) a more diverse range of accommodations and support services, such as:
    • Increased support for graduate students10 with disabilities and chronic health conditions
    • Expanded mental health supports
    • More one-on-one services (e.g., ADHD coaches, disability counsellors, case managers, etc.)
    • More external services (i.e., those not offered by UM)

Footnotes

7. This block of questions asked students how often they encounter the following barriers in a typical month: barriers getting to their campus, barriers getting around campus, barriers related to accessing appropriate work or study spaces, barriers related to a lack of in-person options, barriers related to a lack of hybrid options, barriers related to deadlines or due dates, barriers related to meeting productivity expectations, barriers related to meeting work pace expectations, and barriers related to meeting work hour expectations.
8. Social support was measured using a three-item index, asking respondents if they “can access social support when they need it”, if they “feel part of the UM community”, and if they “have opportunities to interact with other disabled people and those with chronic health conditions who are open about their identities”.
9. Students are relatively more likely to do such work for their peers and instructors or academic supervisors, than for UM staff.
10. Student Accessibility Services and Faculty of Graduate Studies are currently working together to improve graduate students’ accommodations experiences, specifically.

Staff

The majority of staff respondents are in full-time, permanent or on-going positions. Approximately one-third participate via in-person activities, while 42% are engaged in a mix of remote and in-person activities, and 20% are mostly remote. About half are employed in non-academic units and about 20% have supervisory roles. Approximately 50% have been employed at UM for 6 or more years total.

  • Staff indicated they need: 
    • Better access to promotion and advancement opportunities
    • More suitable mentors
    • More access to professional and skill development opportunities
  • Staff indicated they are less knowledgeable about their accommodations options and perceive more stigma around accommodations than students. Staff need more accommodations support, specifically: 
    • More communication about available options and the accommodations process for staff
    • Confidence that applying for and receiving accommodations will not have negative career consequences (e.g., undermine promotion prospects) 
  • Staff need access to a more diverse range of accommodations and supports11, such as:
    • Designated mental health days in addition to vacation and sick days
    • More comprehensive benefits for mental health and chronic health conditions
    • More flexible work arrangements (e.g., expanded hybrid and remote options, 4-day work weeks, and flexible start and stop times)

Footnotes

11. The DAS was administered prior to the relatively recent increase in mental health coverage for UM employees announced in early 2024.

Faculty

Nearly half of faculty respondents are either instructors or assistant professors. Less than one-third are tenured and less than one-quarter hold administrative positions. 

  • Faculty indicated they need: 
    • More equitable tenure and promotion review processes 
    • Better access and support to assume senior leadership roles 
    • More suitable mentors
    • More resources to optimally engage with research, teaching, and service12 
    • Their input to be valued and meaningfully incorporated when they provide disability or chronic health perspectives in service endeavors 
  • Faculty reported encountering more barriers to accessing and using information and communications technologies than staff and students, overall. Faculty specifically indicate they need more support for13 : 
    • Microsoft Teams 
    • UM learning technologies 
    • UM software (e.g., Aurora, Banner, and FAST, etc.) 
  • Faculty indicated they are less knowledgeable about their accommodations options and perceive more stigma around accommodations than students. Faculty reported needing more accommodations support, specifically: 
    • Greater access to formal accommodations, including insurance for a more diverse range of support services, especially expanded mental health coverage14 
    • Better communication about available options and the accommodations process for faculty 
    • Greater access to hybrid teaching options o Confidence that applying for and receiving accommodations will not have negative career consequences.

Footnotes

12. Optimal engagement would also mean engagement that can be sustained over time, including but not limited to appropriate work pace, mode (e.g., remote, hybrid, or in-person), and tasks, for example.
13. 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 those undertaken to meet the Accessibility for Manitobans Act Information and Communications Standard (AMA-IC), and WCAG 2.1 standards for web content.
14. The DAS was administered prior to the relatively recent increase in mental health care coverage for UM employees announced in early 2024. Faculty and staff also highlighted the need for accommodations to be centralized so that they are not affected by unit-level considerations such as budgets and priorities.

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