Price and Kerschbaum interviewed Megan who self identifies as blind. Megan noted that students often are puzzled by how much Megan can see because she uses a white cane, wears dark glassess outside, but she also write on the board. Megan noted she often can hear students in her classes asking each other if they know how much Megan can see, but that students do not ask Megan this question directly. Megan also noted that often individuals assume blindness means an individual exists in a world of total darkness, without taking into consideration residual vision or how other sensory information can help fill in a field of perception.

Example of Difference in Identification

Price notes that this importance of self identification was also found in the interviews where individuals often noted a difference between how one personally identifies their disability and how their disability is defined by others observing them.

Self-identification in the Disabled Academics Survey provided space for complex lived experiences. It allowed participants to express trauma from the diagnostic process, attachment to outdated diagnostic labels, identification with broader categories (e.g., mad, neuroatypical), and the attribution of symptoms to systemic oppression, such as racism.

Importance of Self-Identification in the Disabled Academics Survey

Price, M. (2024). Crip Spacetime. Duke University Press.

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