My practice in higher education spans both academic teaching in the sciences and a pastoral role as a personal tutor, primarily for first year students. The experience of this dual position has shaped my understanding of disability as not only an educational consideration, but a lived experience that intersects with multiple aspects of students’ identities and circumstances.
Intersectionality, as defined by Crenshaw (1989), emphasises that systems of disadvantage operate simultaneously rather than independently. Applying this framework, has encouraged me to recognise that disability intersects with factors such as socioeconomic background, gender, race, and migration status in shaping students’ experiences of higher education. In my role as a personal tutor, students frequently disclose disabilities or health conditions informally, often framed within broader personal or academic challenges during our discussions. I have become increasingly aware that such disclosures are contingent on trust, safety, and prior experiences of being believed or supported. This has prompted me to reflect on how institutional processes that rely on formal disclosure may unintentionally disadvantage students who are less able or willing to navigate them.
The social model of disability has further influenced my thinking by shifting the focus from individual impairment to structural and pedagogical barriers. Within my science teaching, I recognise that traditional practices, such as time-pressured assessments, dense technical language, and assumptions around laboratory participation, may inadvertently exclude some students. While reasonable adjustments offer important support, my reflection suggests that an over-reliance on individual accommodations risks positioning disability as exceptional rather than integral to learner diversity. Simultaneously, I also believe that accommodations should be tailored to the needs of each individual student, and not consist solely of blanket policies, which seem to be the norm for the majority of UK HE institutions.
Engagement with inclusive pedagogical approaches, particularly principles aligned with Universal Design for Learning, has encouraged me to adopt more proactive strategies. These include providing learning materials in multiple formats, offering flexibility in assessment where possible, and explicitly normalising diverse learning needs within teaching spaces. This of course has always been UAL policy, but I have started thinking on how I can be even more proactive in my day-to-day teaching, think about how I phrase things in class, and even notice my body language while delivering. As a personal tutor, I have also become more attentive to how intersecting identities influence students’ confidence in seeking support and advocating for themselves.
One of my recent interactions with a student, consolidated my understanding of how various identities have an effect on their educational journey. I was supervising a student for their master’s thesis, who had chronic anxiety affecting their studies throughout the four years they were with us. Their anxiety became overwhelming during this last stage of their studies and I suggested they access support from UAL’s counselling service, which they rejected based on previous experiences with the service. They then told me that anxiety wasn’t really a recognised problem in their culture, and that their family had prompted them to instead seek support from acupuncturists and herbologists. I found this interaction extremely hard to navigate, as I could see that the student would benefit from talking therapies, but I had to examine my own prejudices and understanding of human conditions and accept that different people and different cultures approach health and disability in different ways.
This reflection has reinforced the importance of ongoing reflexivity in my practice. An intersectional approach requires me to continually question whose needs are centred within existing educational structures, and how my own assumptions may shape student experiences. Ultimately, inclusive practice in HE extends beyond compliance with policy, demanding a critical and compassionate re-examination of how learning environments can be reshaped to promote equity, belonging, and meaningful participation for all students.
References:
Crenshaw, K. (1989) ‘Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), pp. 139–167.
Oliver, M. (1990) The politics of disablement. London: Macmillan.
CAST (2018) Universal Design for Learning guidelines version 2.2. Wakefield, MA: CAST.