Abstract Rates of disability disclosure are steadily increasing in British higher education (HE), with 18% of the student population having a known disability in 2023/24. It might be assumed that progress is being made with increased representation, rights and support for disabled students. However, drawing on interviews with staff who lead disability support services across a range of British HE institutions (HEIs), we find that disability remains an ‘absent presence’—with enduring concerns around the dominance of medicalised framings of disability; differential disclosure rates across student groupings; a lack of attention by senior leaders; tensions between socio‐political, legal, practical and economic imperatives underpinning a drive for often superficial understandings of inclusive practice; and the exclusion of disability materially and discursively on campuses. We particularly explore an emergent paradox between the increasing rate of disability disclosure and the relative absence of disability in institutional cultures, translating Sara Ahmed's work on diversity in HE and the concept of the ‘non‐performative’ to disability research. Our analysis suggests that HEIs often mobilise diversity (i.e., equality, diversity and inclusion—EDI) discourses which ‘contain’ challenges associated with disability and, in this way, avoid meaningful engagement with social justice.
Koutsouris et al. (2025) studied this question.