{"id":53180,"date":"2025-11-18T15:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=53180"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:23:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:23:21","slug":"troubles-online-ableism-and-access-in-higher-education-celebrates-book-launch","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/troubles-online-ableism-and-access-in-higher-education-celebrates-book-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubles Online: Ableism and Access in Higher Education Celebrates Book Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Troubles Online: Ableism and Access in Higher Education Celebrates Book Launch\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

By Emily Putnam<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Carleton community will be celebrating the launch of Troubles Online: Ableism and Access in Higher Education<\/em><\/a> <\/em>with the Carleton Disability and Access Studies Hub (C-DASH)<\/a> on November 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new collection edited by Chelsea Jones<\/a>, Fady Shanouda<\/a> and Lisanne Binhammer<\/a> aims to trouble what online teaching looks like and think critically about how disability is addressed in online classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through analysis, conversation, poetry and art they reflect on disabled, mad, sick, and crip online pedagogy and highlight the possibilities of expanding critical standards for accessible teaching and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rethinking Digital Pedagogy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fady Shanouda<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Feminist Institute of Social Transformation<\/a>, says the collection, that began in 2018, is situated across three distinct moments: before the pandemic, during it, and in its ongoing aftermath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been this push to return to normal,\u201d he says, \u201cbut normal never worked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanouda notes that Troubles Online<\/em> emerged from the realization that what was once called normal in higher education, accessibility and digital life was already exclusionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took the pandemic for this to become more of a reality, and when that happened digital pedagogy was kind of ushered in as the solution to inaccessible teaching and learning, but we knew that it wasn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe tone of the book changed, because we were now working in this environment where disabled folks have been advocating for a very long time to be able to participate in learning and teaching in these more accessible ways,\u201d says Shanouda.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

He says it was around this time that Lisanne Binhamer became involved in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe came together trying to support each other, not only through the digital pedagogic changes that we were facing as learners and teachers, but also through conceptualizing this book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisanne Binhammer<\/a> is an educator, researcher, and designer who received her MA in Anthropology<\/a> with a specialization in Digital Humanities<\/a> from Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Binhammer adds that her background in technology largely informed her approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to know who\u2019s building these technologies,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not just tech leaders or educators\u2014it\u2019s an entire ecosystem of choices and assumptions. I started thinking about that while completing my MA online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centred in interdisciplinarity, this collection retheorizes the classroom around a justice-based approach to online pedagogy and challenges assumptions around universal design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributions include<\/a> Felicita Arzu-Carmichael, Fiona N. Cheuk, Mina Chun, Kimberlee Collins, Elena G. Garcia, Jay Dolmage, Esther Ignagni, Donna Jeffery, Erika Johnson, Curtis Maloley, Mary McCall, Elizabeth Mohler, Jenna Reid, Kristin Smith, Hannah L. Stevens, Jessica Vorstermans, Nathan Whitlock, and Anne Zbitnew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book\u2019s cover art, created by Nadia Walji<\/a>, is titled Musical Roller Coaster Ride<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Walji is an Ottawa-based painter and visual artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walji works with BEING Studio<\/a>, a local space supporting artists with developmental disabilities who are working in visual art and creative writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Fady Shanouda\u2019s own chapter, \u201cCaring Online: A Justice-Oriented Approach to Online Pedagogy\u201d<\/em> (co-authored with Jenna Reid), readers are invited to rethink care and connection in virtual classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building Knowledge Through Collaboration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chelsea Jones is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University and Faculty Fellow in Accessibility with Brock’s Centre for Pedagogical Innovation. Jones also co-produces\u00a0Podagogies: A Learning and Teaching Podcast<\/em>\u00a0at Toronto Metropolitan University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Jones, the project began after publishing an article in University Affairs.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says the response was immediate and strong\u2014press representatives reached out asking if she would consider curating a collection that expanded on those ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIt became something you couldn\u2019t turn away from,\u201d Jones says. \u201cThe book shifted as the contributors leaned into exploring disability and digital life not as a problem to solve, but as a way of thinking critically about our reliance on technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She describes Troubles Online<\/em> as a sustained act of \u201ccritical suspicion\u201d\u2014a questioning of both the hype surrounding technology and the rhetoric of \u201ccritical pedagogy\u201d itself, which can sometimes reproduce exclusion rather than dismantle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s not just a book that’s asking if digital pedagogy is accessible or not accessible. It’s really digging into the nuances of these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones points to a call for papers as the first act of collaboration, noting how contributors like Jay Dolmage and Lisanne Binhammer shaped the direction of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJay\u2019s foreword builds on his foundational text Academic Ableism,<\/em>\u201d she says, \u201cwhile Lisanne\u2019s conclusion reflects what it means to actually learn from and within digital spaces, when it\u2019s working and when it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the comprehensive nature of the publication, Shanouda says there are still gaps in knowledge, and more research to be done in this field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still missing voices\u2014particularly Indigenous technoscience perspectives,\u201d he says. He points to the influence of scholars in critical digital pedagogy and stresses the need for \u201cdeep engagement\u201d that moves beyond established frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cDisability has always been framed as the trouble,\u201d Shanouda says, \u201cbut that trouble actually enabled many of the pandemic\u2019s most important adaptations\u2014captioning, Zoom, asynchronous teaching. Those practices were necessary, and they\u2019re not going away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Jones expands on the inextricable nature of theses adaptations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an inseparability between disability and technology now. Intersectionality means we can\u2019t make clear distinctions between what\u2019s human and what\u2019s digital. The real question is: how do we care for one another in these increasingly digital spaces?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanouda adds that this becomes even more complex for racialized and queer educators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeaching those histories requires a kind of intimacy,\u201d he says, \u201cbut we\u2019re not always there to provide care in the ways the institution imagines. The marketing around care and accessibility often hides how precarious and extractive these systems still are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On audience and impact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jones says the book is \u201cdedicated to all marginalized people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cWe wanted to write for readers who already know these struggles\u2014who might find a point of entry or solidarity here. Digital pedagogy can be isolating, but this collection offers a way to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

“There are cultural legacies involved in this work that often go unacknowledged, especially when tech is hyped at us as if it’s something new and innovative, when in fact it comes with more baggage, and so through this we are trying to also give credit rights too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanouda hopes the book can inspire institutional change.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIf administrators, faculty developers, and teaching and learning services staff pick it up, maybe it\u2019ll spark conversations about training and institutional change,\u201d he says. \u201cBut that kind of change has to come from the bottom up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Binhammer emphasizes a broader reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTechnologists need to read it too,\u201d she says. \u201cThey need to understand what the state of things actually is\u2014the human cost of these technologies and the possibilities they still hold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFolks like this can help develop the technology and an awareness of what things actually look like and how the creation of these experiences exist in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those looking to attend the public book launch for Troubles Online: Ableism and Access in Higher Education<\/a> featuring Drs. Chelsea Jones<\/a> and Fady Shanouda<\/a> in conversation with Dr. Manjeet Birk <\/a>can do so at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre (CDCC)<\/a>, on November 18th<\/sup> from 7:00 \u2013 9:00 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emily Putnam The Carleton community will be celebrating the launch of Troubles Online: Ableism and Access in Higher Education with the Carleton Disability and Access Studies Hub (C-DASH) on November 18. This new collection edited by Chelsea Jones, Fady Shanouda and Lisanne Binhammer aims to trouble what online teaching looks like and think critically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":45018,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[568,611,763,581],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-53180","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-faculty-research","cu_story_type-for-launch","cu_story_type-social-justice","cu_story_type-womens-studies"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/53180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/53180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53187,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/53180\/revisions\/53187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=53180"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=53180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}