“People See Me, But They Don’t See Me”: An Intersectional Study of College Students With Physical Disabilities

Abstract

This critical disability and intersectional narrative inquiry critiques the relationship between intersectional ableism and the experiences of college students with physical disabilities. Participants experienced intersectional erasure as a result of disability being objectified, viewed through an accommodation lens, and perceived additively, as well as survival necessitating they downplay disability. Participants resisted intersectional erasure by searching for homes in their physical bodies and spaces. Implications include the importance of moving from accommodation to inclusion, treating disability as a social identity, respecting the socially constructed and physical realities of disabled bodies, and amplifying disabled students' resistance to ableism.