Going Against the Institutional Grain: The Identity Development of Disabled Students in Higher Education

This paper draws on interviews with 50 disabled students to discuss disability identity and its development during higher education (he). Weaving multiple identity group development models and critical disability studies, it argues that the identity development of disabled students is tightly connected to their positioning in the context of he. While the participants gained access to the institutions, their identity was shaped within ableist structures in which they were constructed as “less than.” This meant that they had to negotiate how they were being seen by professors and peers with how they see themselves. The study does not propose a monolithic model of identity development, but rather highlights some barriers that emerge when identity is developed in institutions that construct it as deficient. An institutional approach to disability must extend beyond formalized and technocratic measures to systemic inclusion in he to support the identity development of disabled students.