Nondisabled Privilege

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I knew I was privileged when I got accepted into college and received a full 4-year scholarship. It takes plenty of privilege to succeed in high school, and it takes even more, to graduate from college.

I’ve lived a privileged life, no doubt about it. But you see, some of that privilege came tumbling down as my health issues interfered with my daily life and higher education pursuits.

I was denied the privilege granted to those who are nondisabled or without a chronic illness.

Within the matter of first 2 months of school, I developed a sinus infection, then the flu, which led to bronchitis on top of my ongoing medical conditions.

I was drowning in health issues and sickness, and begging my professors for a life vest. Most professors were understanding and accommodating.

There was one professor who consistently questioned and invalidated my experiences.

Her ableist views influenced how little leeway she was willing to give me.

Her ableist views based on knowing someone with Celiac disease and her own personal experience with an incurable illness dictated how she treated me.

I felt ashamed for being unable to push through my health problems as she had done; I felt inferior, begging for accommodations from her.

I needed accommodations. And I naively thought I could be open to my professor about my health struggles.

Interactions with this #AbleistEducator either after class or during office hours centered on her saying dismissive things about my symptoms. I couldn’t possibly be experiencing the symptoms I described from Celiac disease. I couldn’t possibly be as sick as I described; I didn’t look sick after all. 

I requested flexibility in her attendance policy.

I had documented chronic health problems: chronic and episodic symptoms, which caused difficulties with regular class attendance and completing work.

I was still completing all my coursework even though I was having trouble attending class and meeting deadlines.

This professor made me feel that my chronic illness detrimentally threatened the integrity of her course. I don’t think she ever considered how my chronic conditions threatened my dignity and wellbeing.

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Swipe to see some of the correspondence between this #AbleistEducator and me.

Swipe to see how I poured it all out for my professor in the last email and never heard back from her.

I wasn’t begging for a grade I didn’t deserve; I was simply begging for accommodation.

Even while I experienced the privilege of pursuing higher education, I was denied the privilege granted to those who are nondisabled. 

As Allan G Johnson points out in Privilege, Power, and Difference: 

• “Nondisabled people don’t have to worry about their disability status being used against them when trying to fit in at work or whether teammates will feel comfortable working with them”
• “Nondisabled people can assume that they will fit in at work and in other settings without having to worry about being evaluated and judged according to preconceived notions and stereotypes about people with disabilities”
• “Nondisabled people are more likely [..] to be given a second chance when they fail, and to be allowed to treat failure as a learning experience rather than as an indication of who they are”

Nondisabled students and students without a chronic illness don’t have to worry about proving a disability or their chronic illness to their professors. 

Nondisabled students and students without a chronic illness don’t have to deal with the exhaustion of disability or chronic illness. 

So you see, there is a far greater privilege to pursuing higher education without a disability or chronic illness.