Shahd Alshammari, "A Hybridized Academic Identity: Negotiating a Disability Within Academia's Discourse of Ableism

1. How does Alshammari's article reflect the concept of intersectionality? (hint: How does she describe disability in terms of the Western tradition of viewing the body? What about Eastern conceptions of disability [both Middle East and Bedouin cultures])?

 

Subjects on disability should always be included in higher education to encourage acceptance. Alshammari's article reveals the commonness of disability issues within many higher education platforms, from classrooms to physical environments to student policies, faculty staff discussions and even school administrators regulations. In western tradition disclosing one's disability and identifying shared experiences can produce solidarity. However there are situation and many different factors that complicates the subject like race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality. It is quite different in other cultures; Literature on disclosure is focus on deep understanding of theories and at the same time recognizing the processes and implications of disclosing one's disability.

While there are many approach to disclosing one's disability from across different cultures, one unifying factor is that it all points to a tradition on how to better understand people suffering from disability.