ACCESS, IDENTITY, AND INSTITUTIONAL ABLEISM: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF DISABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Master of Education (Inclusive Education) candidate: Colleen Smereka

20 April 2026

1:00 PM Atlantic

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/27704297744508?p=4Hf0YYLNx3hkZ0t13I
Meeting ID: 277 042 977 445 08
Passcode: Nm34bf7u

Thesis Committee:

Drs. Ayman Aljarrah & Lynn Aylward, Supervisors
Dr. Cynthia Bruce, Concordia University, External Examiner
Dr. Kesa Munroe-Anderson, Internal Examiner
Dr. Fikir Haile, Chair of the defence

Abstract

Access to learning is fundamental to how disabled students experience higher education and understand themselves within these environments. Using autoethnography, this research explores how access to learning has shaped my identity as a disabled student navigating postsecondary studies. Drawing on critical disability theory and Titchkosky’s (2011) access theory, personal narratives are situated within broader cultural and institutional contexts to examine how disability becomes meaningful through everyday educational practices. Autobiographical accounts spanning elementary school, undergraduate education, and graduate studies analyze moments when disability was questioned, managed, or rendered invisible within institutional settings. These encounters reveal how treating disability as something to be fixed, assimilated, and framed as a deficit shapes disabled students’ identities and sense of belonging in neoliberal higher education. Access to learning for disabled students is far more complex than simply being granted admission to university. Rather than a matter of following bureaucratic or procedural rules, access emerges as a socially constructed and interpretive process embedded in institutional norms and power relations. This research advocates for a reconceptualization of access in higher education that moves beyond accommodation toward more humanizing approaches to learning.

About Colleen …

Colleen Smereka is a Master of Education student in Inclusive Education at Acadia University. Using autoethnography and her lived experience, she explores how access to learning shapes the identity of disabled students navigating postsecondary education. Drawing on critical disability theory and Titchkosky’s access theory, her work examines how disability is interpreted and managed within higher educational contexts.
Colleen’s work is grounded in a commitment to understanding how disabled learners engage with access within higher education. Her work supporting post-secondary students across multiple institutions has deepened her insight into how institutional systems influence the ways disabled learners move through university environments. She is committed to reimagining access in ways that move beyond accommodation toward more humanizing approaches to learning.