Queering Ability

Greetings Coalition members and general ACPA membership:

 I’m Spencer Scruggs and I currently serve as the Membership Engagement Coordinator for the Coalition for (Dis)Ability. I’ve happily served in the role for a year and a half and feel blessed to have worked with so many amazing scholars and professionals to bring you content related to  disability and higher education. Over that time, telling our members’ stories has been incredibly important and crucial to the role our coalition plays within the larger ACPA association structure.

I wanted to take some time to highlight one of our amazing engagement programs, our Queering Ability podcast. Started after the 2018 annual convention, this podcast was designed to give space for queer student affairs and higher education professionals with disabilities to share their narratives, stories, and experiences around growing up,  growing into, and living in both their queer and disability identities. Hosted by Wayne Glass from the Coalition for Sexuality and Gender Identities and myself, each guests answers a series of open questions aimed at getting to know them more and what they are comfortable sharing with listeners. Additionally, each episode features fun little games as well as some serious questions about the state of Student Affairs and how we can better support queer individuals with disabilities, especially those that are also college students.

With some of our guests, we’ve talked about trans and gender nonconforming identities and how mental health concerns impact those communities. We’ve chatted with folx about coming out with both queer and disability identities and how both can be similar but also look and feel different for each person. We discuss body image, body positivity, and shared similarities among both communities around the toxicity of beauty and body standards. We talk about queer and disabled icons that give us hope for an inclusive and intersectional future. If you haven’t taken a listen yet, I encourage you to sample some of the episodes on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcatcher (search “Queering Ability” on your favorite podcast app). If there is a topic that you are interested in that we haven’t covered yet, I would love for your to share it with us. Come be a guest on the show if you identify as a queer person with a disability. If you have any questions or want to know more, feel free to email me at spencerescruggs@gmail.com. Happy listening and engaging!

And while you are at it, feel free to fill out our Membership Engagement Survey if you haven’t yet.