Is Disability a DEI Issue?: The Constructions of Disability in Higher Education Equity Work

This qualitative research study draws from eight semi‐structured interviews with campus administrators, faculty, and staff in the U.S. to understand how disability is constructed within aims for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts on college campuses. Higher education has increasingly used categories of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, nationality, and ethnicity under the umbrella term of DEI to address social inequalities in institutional settings, yet disability is often omitted from this work or framed as an individual, bio‐medical issue. Findings indicated that the lack of acknowledgement of disability was the result of institutional reporting structures, false perceptions of cost, and legal requirements of confidentiality. Findings also indicated that the inclusion of disability proved beneficial not just to the disabled but also other historically marginalized students. Valuing disability as a cultural, communicative, and embodied experience on college campuses helped expand DEI efforts and disability‐affirming representation more broadly.