Dr. August Stockwell defines disability justice at William R. Johnson lecture

Dr. August Stockwell explored disability justice and neurodiversity with the goal of furthering cultural awareness at the annual William R. Johnson Intercultural Lecture at Elmhurst University on Oct. 21. 

Stockwell encouraged the audience to avoid a “saviorism,” approach when addressing disability 

in the LGBTQ2IA community, which includes individuals that identify as two-spirited, intersex, and asexual. Instead, solidarity should be expressed by practicing cultural humility. 

“Language is always shifting. Different people are going to have different experiences. We can’t have a complete understanding,” they said. “But we can have humility and openness to growth.” 

According to Stockwell, disability justice should be evaluated through an intersectional lens and cannot be considered as a stand-alone issue. “When we’re focusing on, for example, building gender-affirming practices, that’s also tightly interwoven with racial justice, and disability justice, and reproductive justice, and housing justice, and all of these issues,” they stressed. 

“Between 55 and 70 percent of autistic adults identify as being LGBTQ2IA in some way,” Stockwell said, noting the “multiple forms of discrimination” that can affect an individual. 

The 2015 U.S. Trans Survey reported that 50% of Black transgender women have experienced housing discrimination, in comparison to an average of 30% across other racial identities. “This is an example of how transphobia and racism can intersect to create compounded effects,” stated Stockwell. 

“All bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation-state, religion, and more,” they said. “We can’t separate these things.” 

Moving away from oppressive structures necessitates liberation, which Stockwell characterized as the degree of freedom possessed by an individual. “In a situation with only one response option, even if one might be able to access a resource, there’s really no choice available.” 

Disabilities should be viewed as a “natural form of diversity,” to avoid further stigmatization, Stockwell explained. “The goal is [to] accommodate disability with optimal outcomes.” 

Neurodiversity, similarly, is understood as a “concept where neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any other human variation,” as described by Stockwell. 

Within neurodiversity, Stockwell defined neurodivergence as, “having a brain that functions in ways that diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards.” This includes individuals with autism, ADHD, and Tourette syndrome. 

To create inclusive and accessible spaces, Stockwell emphasized the need to rid our language of “ableist messages,” through the recognition of stereotypical portrayals. Limited access to resources for neurodiverse people must also be examined. 

“We can notice the ways that society is set up best for people in one subset of the population and not others,” they said. “Do we benefit from how society is currently set up? Or is that not really what works best for us?”