A Narrative Exposition of the University, Disability and the Non-Disabled Academic

In this paper we reflect on our positions as senior non-disabled academics in the university and our experiences of trying to support colleagues who are disabled researchers. We consider notions of belonging, mutuality and community capacity. We sit with an original narrative exposition of the university and the creative potential of disability to detail, visit and resist, inform and reform our day-to-day working lives; to depathologise the university. We also reveal some of the barriers, blockages and frustrations. We make a case for the methodological rigour of a composite narrative which centres the fictional character of Florence. Our analysis of this narrative reveals five significant themes; addressing research funding inequities; anticipating disability; centering disabled people’s organisations; revisiting support and fostering mutual alliances. In conclusion, we argue that we should approach tales of engagement with university processes, policies and bureaucratic arrangements not simply as undesirable entities of the neoliberal university that require deconstruction; but as everyday practices through which we might do some of our most depathologising work (as frustrating as this labour might be).