Before reading, I invite you to check out this short post for context.
In reflecting on how we can better support students with chronic illness, I have watched the set videos for this task, as well as the recording of Leah Cox’s talk “Utilising Discomfort Pedagogies as a Decolonisation Tool in Teaching and Learning Practice” (2025). I have also read “International Students’ Feelings of Shame in Higher Education” (Hu, 2024) and “Gender and Social Class Inequalities in Higher Education: Intersectional Reflections on a Workshop Experience” (Fernandez et al, 2024).
Together, these materials have helped me think more deeply about:
a) the paradox of disability being both hyper-visible and invisible in society, and
b) the relationship between visibility and emotion, and emotion as a critical tool in the classroom.
This has led me to consider adjustments I can make in my own teaching to better support students with chronic illnesses and other disabilities.
The paradox of disability being both hyper-visible and invisible in society: Adepitan (2020) uses the concept of “discrimination by design” to illustrate how exclusion is embedded in infrastructure—drawing connections between the historical legacy of racial segregation and the contemporary inaccessibility of public transport for disabled individuals. The clustering of wheelchair users into a designated bus section exemplifies how visibility can become a form of control or marginalisation. Christine Sun Kim (2023) also reflects on the politics of visibility, asking, “What is lost and what harm is caused because of this?” She notes that in her artworks, scale equals visibility, and visibility shapes what is socially valuable. These critiques point to the current limitations of positive scheming, which often prioritise visible disabilities while overlooking the realities of people with less visible or chronic conditions.
This has prompted me to consider some changes I can make in my teaching:
Intentional classroom setup
To support diverse abilities in my classroom, I will ensure the space is set up in advance with accessible areas for rest (fatigue is common with chronic illness). These spaces will be available to all students without requiring them to disclose a reason.
Accessible teaching materials
Brain fog is a common symptom of chronic illness. To accommodate this, I will design workshop and briefing slides with minimal text, lots of visuals, and clear signposting. This format also supports neurodiverse students and those with language barriers.
My hope is that by being intentional with both setup and materials, I can support students with diverse needs without making them feel hyper-visible if they disclose their disability—or invisible if they do not.
Crenshaw’s (1990) intersectionality theory reminds us that disability can’t be fully understood on its own. My student and I share several intersecting identities—whiteness, cis womanhood, Englishness, and a similar socio-economic background—which may have fostered a sense of familiarity and mutual understanding. However, despite these shared positionalities, she has only now disclosed her disability. This highlights how even apparent relational closeness does not necessarily translate into a sense of safety or trust regarding disclosure. According to UAL’s 2024/25 data, 82.1% of students have not declared a disability, suggesting this is part of a wider institutional pattern. Furthermore, UAL’s categories do not explicitly include chronic illness, which may further deter students from declaring their condition. This omission can contribute to feelings of erasure or irrelevance, reinforcing the invisibility of certain disabilities.
Visibility and emotion are deeply linked. Shame, as discussed by Adepitan (2020) and in the paper “International Students’ Feelings of Shame in Higher Education,” (Hu, 2024) can result from intersecting systemic structures. Leah Cox (2025) also emphasises this saying “emotion and discomfort helps us to see oppression and inequality – if we don’t have it, we don’t see it”. Inspired by her, I plan to explore visualisation tasks—like asking students to draw their inner critic —to make emotions visible and foster critical conversations around disability and inclusion. The visual methodolgies of Fernandez et al (2024) offer further resources for developing inclusive learning experiences.
I hope that these changes will help me better support students as they navigate the physical and emotional barriers they encounter at UAL. I also hope they will help students feel able to disclose their needs, should they choose to.
Reference List:
Art 21, Christine Sun Kim in “Friends & Strangers” – Season 11 | Art21 (2023) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpRaEDlLsI&t=3s (Accessed: 14 May 2025).
Cox, L. (2025), ‘Pedagogies of Discomfort’, [Recorded lecture]. Inclusive Practices. University of the Arts London. 14 May. Available at: https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/mod/folder/view.php?id=1401553 (Accessed 15 May 2025).
Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241–1299.
Fernandez, D. et al (2024) ‘Gender and social class inequalities in higher education: intersectional reflections on a workshop experience’, Frontiers in Psychology, pp. 1 – 10
Hu, X. (2024) ‘International Students’ Feeling of Shame in the Higher Education: An Intersectional Analysis of Their Racialised, Gendered and Classed Experiences in the UK Universities’, Sociology Study, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 69 – 89
Para Pride, Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month 2023 (2023) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc&t=1s (Accessed: 14 May 2025).
ParalympicsGB (2020) Ade Adepitan gives amazing explanation of systemic racism, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsxndpgagU (Accessed: 14 May 2025).
University of the Arts London, The Social Model of Disability at UAL (2020) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdnjmcrzgw&t=1s (Accessed: 14 May 2025).
Thank you for this rich and reflective post, Emily! I really appreciated how you wove together theory, lived experience, and practical action. Your attention to the paradox of visibility—in particular how design can both marginalise and erase—was especially resonant. The concrete steps you propose, like creating rest spaces and simplifying slide design, feel both compassionate and quietly radical in their refusal to demand disclosure. Your use of emotion as a pedagogical tool, inspired by Leah Cox, is inspiring—I’d be curious to hear how students respond to the inner critic visualisation exercise.
Thank you, Can—I really appreciate your feedback.
I was initially worried that creating rest spaces and simplifying slide design might feel too simple or ‘obvious’ as adjustments. However, your comment that these changes are ‘quietly radical in their refusal to demand disclosure’ is very reassuring. Since classroom setup and slides are foundational aspects of teaching, it felt important to give them careful consideration.
I’m also curious to see how students respond to the inner critic visualisation exercise. I didn’t have space within the 500-word limit to expand on this proposal, but it was surprisingly challenging to devise a visualisation task that felt meaningful. I’m still questioning my focus on the inner critic, as this could be misconstrued as placing the onus on the individual rather than addressing systemic issues, which UAL’s social model of disability advises against.
An alternative approach could be to ask students to recall a moment when they felt invisible, uncomfortable, misunderstood, or angry, and then visualise the impact that moment had on them. Focusing on the impact rather than the source of emotion is something Leah Cox recommends in her talk, and I think it’s a great way to bring emotion into the classroom while sidestepping potential issues arising from students feeling pressured to call someone or something out. Of course, this doesn’t deny students the opportunity to talk about specific moments of harm but allows them not to start there—potentially making sharing easier.