Troubles Online Ableism and Access in Higher Education - Book Review

Abstract

In the foreword to this book, Joy Dolmage, founding editor of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, states (p. xxii):

"I think we can all agree that, before the pandemic, our schools had too many unnecessary barriers in place for both students and faculty. COVID-19 has provided new reference points for evaluating long-standing social problems, allowing us to view old problems from fresh perspectives (Sherwood et al., 2021).

If we want to push toward online education as just another temporary retrofit, then we need to build something that is much more accessible and sustainable."

And so, the scene is set for what this volume advocates for. Co-editor Lisanne Binhammer states explicitly that the purpose of this book is not simply to critique, but to move to a place of active resistance. This volume, therefore, acts as a call to arms for what its contributors all claim needs to be exposed – that online pedagogy is somehow the solution to academic ableism. Her fellow co-editors, Chelsea Temple Jones and Fady Shanouda, state that the crux of this book is that while digital learning is touted as readily available to all, in-person and online approaches to such delivery remain inadequate. Instead of falling prey to simple yet persuasive arguments that online pedagogy is an automatic win for access, the intent of Online: Ableism and Access in Higher Education is to provide a new orientation to critical, digital, and accessible pedagogy.