What is needed is neurodiversity: Emotional labour and neuroqueerness in the age of the Accord
Frey Parkes & Susan Hopkins, UniSQ College (Pathways), University of Southern Queensland
The Australian Universities Accord Final Report noted the shocking underrepresentation of First Nations, regional and remote, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. However, using “faulty data”, the Report found that people with a disability already “appear[ed] to exceed this group’s expected enrolment share of 8.4%” (p. 114) and recommended only “maintain[ing]” current participation rates (p. 21), failing also to appreciate the diverse, compounding and intersectional challenges encountered by learners and teachers living with a disability.
Particularly, the Accord failed to recognise that university culture itself can be profoundly disabling for neurodiverse students and teachers. While everyone agrees that neurodiverse people should have the same rights to access, opportunity and support as any other learners or teachers, in practice this is not always the reality.
One issue is the federal government’s defunding of key programs. Another is that low expectations and limiting stereotypes are still alive and well in both academia and the wider community. The authors of the Accord have been criticised for their low expectations of disabled students, but we think that a neurodiversity focus shines an illuminating light on the problems of the typical university education experience overall.
(July 2024)
