Supplementary Reading: Does Dis/ability Now Sit at the Table(s) of Social Justice and Multicultural Education? – A Descriptive Survey of Three Recent Anthologies
David Connor
About Does Dis/ability Now Sit at the Table(s) of Social Justice and Multicultural Education?
In this article, David Connor asks a deceptively simple but deeply political question: Has disability finally been invited to the “table” of social justice and multicultural education? For decades, conversations about diversity in education centered race, gender, class, sexuality, and language — while disability was often sidelined, treated as a medical issue, or confined to the world of special education.
Connor examines three major anthologies on social justice and multicultural education published between 2009 and 2010. Through both macro (big-picture) and micro (chapter-by-chapter) analysis of ninety-nine chapters, he investigates how disability is framed. Is it treated as deficit and disorder? Or as a social construct — a meaningful dimension of human diversity shaped by context, culture, and power?
The good news? Disability is increasingly included. In fact, after race, disability is the second most featured marker of identity across the anthologies. That’s a significant shift. But Connor does not celebrate uncritically. Inclusion alone is not enough. The real question is how disability is conceptualized.
Throughout the article, Connor shows that many authors frame disability through a minority model akin to race or gender rather than through a purely medical lens. Disability Studies in Education (DSE) plays a central role here, challenging special education’s historical monopoly and pushing back against deficit-based thinking. Several disability-specific chapters critique pseudo-scientific labeling practices, standardized testing, segregation, and the “master script” of normalcy that structures schooling.
Connor also emphasizes intersectionality. Disability does not exist in isolation; it intersects with race, gender, sexuality, poverty, and language. Overrepresentation of students of color in disability categories, neoliberal testing policies, and exclusionary school cultures all reveal how systems of power operate across identity markers.
Importantly, Connor resists triumphalism. Disability may now “sit at the table,” but tensions remain. Inclusion can dilute radical critique. Disability Studies itself must grapple with critiques of whiteness and insufficient engagement with race. The article ultimately calls for coalition and building alliances between Disability Studies, Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, Feminist Studies, and multicultural education.
The takeaway? Disability is no longer an uninvited guest in social justice discourse, but its presence demands ongoing critical reflection, not complacency.
Before You Read
Think about diversity initiatives you’ve encountered — in schools, workplaces, or universities. When diversity is discussed, what categories usually come up first? Race? Gender? Sexual orientation? How often is disability part of that conversation — and how is it framed?
As you read, pay attention to the difference between inclusion and transformation. Is disability simply added to a list of identity markers? Or does it fundamentally reshape how we understand equity, normalcy, and justice in education?
Connor invites you to think historically, structurally, and politically about disability — not as an individual condition, but as a site of power.
Guiding Questions
- How does Connor distinguish between medical and social models of disability?
- What does it mean for Disability Studies in Education (DSE) to move beyond special education?
- How is disability positioned relative to race, gender, and sexuality in the anthologies analyzed?
- What role does intersectionality play in understanding disability within education?
- Why does Connor resist treating inclusion as an “answered prayer”?
Where to find this reading:
This contemporary text is not in the public domain or shared with a creative commons license. You can read this article by clicking the link below
- Does Dis/ability Now Sit at the Table(s) of Social Justice and Multicultural Education? A Descriptive Survey of Three Recent Anthologies: https://dsq-sds.org/article/id/230/
Summary tying to larger themes
Read alongside other social justice frameworks, Connor’s piece highlights a crucial insight: disability isn’t a standalone identity category—it’s entangled with race, class, gender, and sexuality in the everyday machinery of schooling. That means ethical analysis has to track how institutions label, sort, and “normalize” people, often using seemingly neutral tools (testing, diagnosis, placement) that carry real moral consequences. In this way, disability becomes a lens for asking deeper philosophical questions about normalcy: Who sets the standard? Who benefits from it? And what kinds of bodies and minds are treated as problems to fix rather than differences to include? Connor ultimately argues that real justice requires coalition-building—an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach that can challenge not just individual prejudice, but the systems that manufacture exclusion.
