Building Identity and Culture Around Disability

Building community and culture around disability is a relatively new idea in higher education. This spring, Grinnell is demonstrating its leadership among small liberal arts colleges by creating a new Disability Cultural Center on campus.

“We will be one of the first, if not the first, at a small private liberal arts institution,” says Autumn Wilke, associate chief diversity officer for disability resources at the College.

Grinnell’s DCC is a work in progress. The current space in Steiner Hall serves as a placeholder while Wilke and her team do research, hold conversations, and conduct surveys to learn what Grinnellians want from a DCC and what kind of programming it should provide.

Students are playing an important role in the center’s evolution. Emmy Potter ’24 is a biology and political science double major and part of the student team that works with Wilke. She conducts surveys, analyzes data, and much more, all to learn about what Grinnellians want the DCC to be. “I hope that the DCC provides a space to uplift disability culture and history as well as a safe space for people to discuss and explore disability, whether they identify as disabled or not,” she says.

Ariana Furlong ’24, a psychology major with a concentration in linguistics, agrees. She has helped conduct research on other DCCs around the country and the creation of a physical space on campus, which she hopes will provide a comfortable, dedicated space for the disabled community at Grinnell so that every student feels not only seen, but also supported.

At the DCC, people can connect with others for conversation, community, and mutual support. It’s a place where students can relax and spend time with others who have had similar experiences and who understand the complexities of living with a disability. It’s a place of communal support focused on the identity of people with disabilities.

The DCC offers welcoming space for anyone who needs it. It’s cozy and comfortable. Natural light streams in big windows, sustaining a plethora of plants. The DCC is also home to a collection of Squishmallow stuffed toys, some with their own identities of disability. The furniture is easy to move and rearrange for different uses. There’s a lending library of books related to disability.

In short, it’s a place where people can relax, feel comfortable, and find a sense of belonging.

Wilke hopes the DCC will become a fixture on campus, like the Conney M. Kimbo Black Cultural Center and the Stonewall Resource Center. “[Disability] is part of who you are in the same way that sexual orientation, gender — any of those sorts of things — are,” Wilke explains. She hopes expanding disability cultural work on campus will provide more places for that natural community to thrive.

Advancing the idea of culture related to disability and framing disability as part of the broader spectrum of identity for students, faculty, and staff at the College is an encouraging development, Wilke says. “Grinnell is saying, ‘Disability is part of the diversity of our community,’ which I think then changes how we talk about disability or how we think about disability.”

Changing perspectives on disability is also an important part of the DCC’s mission. “A disability rights activist once told me that disability is not a localized experience,” Potter says. “Disabled people are the world's largest minority, and everyone experiences disability at some point in their life — it is just dependent on when.”

Stay tuned for opportunities to share your thoughts on the DCC and its programming in the coming months!