ABSTRACT
In this chapter I adopt positions from the study of leadership and insights from the trade union activism of impaired professionals in order to interrogate the organisational learning difficulties, sectoral impairments, and avoidance that disable the academy. In 2005 the Disability Equality Duty heralded a shift toward harnessing the authority of disabled people and placed a critical legislative responsibility on colleges and universities to ensure the active participation of disabled students and staff. Yet three years later, The Commission for Disabled Staff in Lifelong Learning (CDSLL, 2008) reported a systemic failure to address the needs and requirements of disabled staff, to the extent that there was endemic institutional discrimination. Drawing on an institutional case study, I analyse the professional agency of impaired staff in the academy in promoting disability equality; highlight the extent to which disabled employees may be categorised as deeply problematic; and suggest that the authority of people who are disabled can be profoundly challenging and disruptive for institutional policy makers who are not disabled. I propose a counter narrative in which disability metaphors may expose organisational learning difficulties, furnish disabled employees and activists with a framework to contest disability inequality, and counter the academy’s avoidance of meaningful engagement with disabled people and equality legislation.
