Price argues that accommodation works on a notion of disability as not fluid and requires disability to be both stable and knowable, since accommodations rest on an assumption that disabled people should be able to know and predict what they are going to need days, weeks, and semesters in advance, because of this accommodations lead to disabled people having to perform predictability and lines are created between those whose disabilities are stable enough to benefit from the protections of institutional accommodations and those whose needs are not. 

Accommodation and Fixed Realities of Disability

Accommodations also focus on fixing disability both through the definition of fixing that refers to solving a problem through retrofitting and how accommodations allow access through retrofitting structures of academia (both psychical and not) and through Stephanie Kershbaum's idea of fixing the difference  where she uses fixing to refer to how by treating difference as stable we conceptualize it as something that can be fixed in place. 

Accommodations and Fixing Disability

Price situates accommodating disability as a concept that we will look back on in the future and realize it is not the worst thing but not a truly liberatory framework. Price is not against accommodation as a daily practice and is not arguing that we shouldn't fight for accommodation as a bare minimum but that we should recognize it is a band-aid because it is based on fixed realities of disability and fixing disability in ways that are not in line with disabled embodiment.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Disability as fluid refers to the phenomenon, that is especially acute in individuals with dynamic disabilities, where disability, and whether one is perceived as disabled, is constantly in flux based on whether an individual has disclosed disability, experience of symptoms, and whether they are being perceived as disabled by those around them. Disability as fluid refuses compulsory able-bodied and able-mindedness by destabilizing an abled/disabled binary, and acknowledging that shifting needs and capabilities does not undermine a lived experience of disability.

Disability as Fluid

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

Crip Spacetime

Collen Floyd had an undergrad class that stated on the syllabus that there were five pop quizzes during the semester. When Collen voiced to the professor that to have her accommodations met the pop quizzes would need to be sent over to the university testing center beforehand and would remove the element of surprise the professor stated they viewed Collen's accommodations as an unfair advantage and thought Collen would tell her peers about the pop quizzes. Collen took the quizzes without accommodations, but after her grades suffered she disclosed her medical information to her professor. By this time in the semester, Colleen had already been classified by the professor as a bad student. Colleen was told that if she really needed accommodations she would've requested them earlier. Colleen went through the emotional labor of divulging more of her disability to her professor which led to the professor deciding she was "disabled enough" to need accommodation. While Colleen's grades increased she was now viewed as cheating instead of being viewed as a bad student - her sudden grade increase was interpreted as proof of academic dishonesty. This led to mutual distrust between Colleen and the professor.

Example: Floyd's experience of Disability as Fluid 

Emily, a first-year college student, struggled with learning music theory despite her experience in band and choir. She became frustrated with her inability to grasp the material, and her professor appeared equally frustrated, possibly perceiving her as lazy or not caring about the course. When the professor asked sharply if something was wrong with her, Emily realized she was being asked if she had a learning disability. This interaction highlighted the professor's deficit-based view of disability, implying that Emily’s struggles stemmed from something being wrong with Emily. At the time, Emily shared this perspective due to internalized ableism and did not identify as disabled, believing that if she truly needed accommodations, she would already have them. Emily believed that if she would have benefitted from accommodations someone would have already told her.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After