Intersectionality of Race and Disability

Self-reflective teaching practice

This resource is to be used by instructors as an introduction to the intersectionality of race and disability, and as a prompt to reflect on, and review, how intersectionality impacts student experiences with curriculum, pedagogy, and the classroom.

What is intersectionality?

Intersectionality is a concept introduced in 1989 by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate. It provides a framework for understanding how our multiple social identities intersect and interact with systems of racism and oppression.

Intersectionality brings together various aspects of our identity, such as race, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and others, to form a more authentic and accurate sense of self.

Intersectional theory contends that the disadvantages people face are a result of not just one, but multiple, interconnected sources of oppression. Each of their identity markers (e.g., “Muslim” and “female”) would not then exist independently of each other, but rather would inform one another, creating a complex convergence of oppression (YWBoston, 2017).

Intersectionality and Disability

Intersectionality is composed of our social identities, the systems of oppression in which we operate, and the ways in which they intersect. The oppression that racialized individuals with disabilities experience, therefore, is compounded through the intersection of racism and ableism (the idea that individuals with disabilities are ‘less than’ individuals without disabilities).

The intersectionality of race and disability can also get more complex as we see disability being used as a driver or reason behind racial discrimination. The quote below by Isabella Kres-Nash, an American civil rights lawyer, helps us to understand this complexity further.

“Racism and ableism are often thought of as parallel systems of oppression that work separately to perpetuate social hierarchy. Not only does this way of looking at the world ignore the experiences of people of color with disabilities, but it also fails to examine how race is pathologized in order to create racism. Meaning that society treats people of color in specific ways to create barriers, and these poor conditions create disability. The concept of disability has been used to justify discrimination against other groups by attributing disability to them.”

To further explore intersectionality of race and disability watch this video featuring Keri Gray, a black disabled woman, shares a personal intersectionality example.

The following graphic demonstrates the incidence of disabilities within various racialized groups in the US (Courtney-Long, 2017):

Adults with disabilities: Ethnicity and race

When it comes to the health of people with disabilities, it’s important to know the health differences among racial and ethnic groups.

Racialized people with disabilities experience lower diagnosis rates of cognitive or mental disabilities, decreased access to medical and healthcare resources, increased poverty rates, and lower graduation rates, compared with white individuals with disabilities or with racialized individuals with no disabilities (Courtney-Long, 2017; n.d., 2019; Ratto, 2016; Whiston, 2011).

The checklist below will help you ensure your course contents are accessible to all your students including racialized students with disabilities.

Accessibility Checklist

By observing the following standards and practices, instructors can start to ensure that students of all backgrounds and ethnicities experience equitable access to learning content and materials.

Resources

References

Coolidge, A., Doner, S., Robertson, T., & Gray, J. (2018). Accessibility toolkit – 2nd edition. BCcampus.

Courtney-Long, E.A., Romano, S.D., Carroll, D.D. et al. Socioeconomic Factors at the Intersection of Race and Ethnicity Influencing Health Risks for People with Disabilities. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2017) 4: 213. DOI: 10.1007/s40615-016-0220-5

Ratto, A. B., Anthony, B. J., Kenworthy, L., Armour, A. C., Dudley, K., & Anthony, L. G. (2016). Are Non-intellectually Disabled Black Youth with ASD Less Impaired on Parent Report than Their White Peers?. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 46(3), 773–781.

(n.d., 2019). Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities. U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS. 

Whitson, H. E., Hastings, S. N., Landerman, L. R., Fillenbaum, G. G., Cohen, H. J., & Johnson, K. S. (2011). Black-white disparity in disability: the role of medical conditions. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 59(5), 844–850. 

Authors

Written by: Rotem Lavy (Educational Developer, at NorQuest College)

Reviewed and edited by: Reva George (Instructor, Business at NorQuest College)