Inclusion and Access

Grounded in asset-based thinking, community-based frameworks, and a commitment to justice to reveal how intersecting systems of power construct and sustain educational exclusion.

Overview

Grounded in asset-based thinking, community-based frameworks, and a commitment to justice, the Inclusion and Access Pillar draws on DisCrit, Black Feminist Thought, and intersectionality to reveal how intersecting systems of power construct and sustain educational exclusion. Guided by principles of relationality, resistance, and care, this work advances research and practice that foster systemic transformation toward cultural responsiveness and authentic usability. While our approach builds on a long legacy of critical and anti-racist scholarship, we also prioritize creating products and tools that are accessible and actionable for diverse audiences.

Impact

Through participatory partnerships, families—particularly Black families—are positioned as experts and co-researchers. Inclusion and access are understood as co-constructed, equity-driven processes that shift power toward those with lived experience. This approach builds systems that are responsive, accountable, and designed for collective belonging, ensuring that educational spaces cultivate not only access but also liberation and shared agency. Our goal is not only to inform practice, but to transform systems and influence policy, building structures that truly work for all.

Strategies

  • Design Equity-Driven Professional Learning: Develop and evaluate evidence-based learning experiences that help educators recognize how intersecting systems of oppression shape teaching and policy.
  • Facilitate Reflective Inquiry Spaces: Support educators in critically examining their own biases and assumptions about students with disabilities, as well as their practices, through sustained dialogue and reflection.
  • Center and Elevate Lived Expertise: Engage students with disabilities and their families, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds.
  • Foster Collaborative Relationships: Establish ongoing feedback loops between families, researchers, and schools to transform relationships from transactional to collaborative.
  • Co-Create Solutions: Develop policies and practices informed by family insights and community priorities.
  • Collaborate Across Stakeholders: Partner with families, educators, and community members to redesign referral, assessment, and service-delivery processes.
  • Eliminate Gatekeeping: Identify and remove racialized and ableist barriers that limit participation and access to services.

  • Integrate Multiple Forms of Evidence: Combine qualitative narratives and quantitative data to reveal how inequities manifest in schools.

  • Center Community Knowledge: Use storytelling to amplify students’ and families’ lived experiences as catalysts for institutional reflection and reform.

  • Disseminate Findings Broadly: Share insights through accessible formats such as community briefs, training modules, and policy dialogues to ensure research informs both practice and policy.

Goals

  • Advance Transformative Professional Learning That Dismantles Racism, Ableism, and Misogynoir in Education

  • Build Authentic, Community-Based Partnerships That Center Disabled Students and Their Families as Co-Creators of Change

  • Co-Design Equitable Systems of Support That Reflect the Lived Realities of Students and Families

  • Leverage Data and Storytelling to Illuminate Inequities and Drive Systemic Change