Date of Award

2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Eyo Ewara

Abstract

My dissertation is concerned with better understanding the barriers disabled people encounter while attempting to procure access both at the institutional level, and in their everyday lives. Within disability and accessibility literature, there are many discourses on what disability is and what access means. However, there are few people who explore the harmful consequences of disabled people being forced to “prove” they are disabled to an ableist world to get their basic needs met, and my dissertation intervenes in this gap. Within current US policy, if a disabled person requires access support at the institutional level, they must provide medical documentation and further justify why their medical conditions necessitate accommodations in ways that are understandable to people in positions of authority. In my dissertation, I illustrate how this policy poses a barrier to access. Demanding proof of disability as a condition for access undermines the agency of disabled people by withholding their basic needs if they are not labeled as disabled by people in power. Instead, I advocate for a model of access that is decoupled from the demand for disabled people to their experiences and needs to make sense to an able-bodied world. Towards this end, I advance the concept of “the right to access opacity”. In contrast to issues of privacy, the right to access opacity theorizes closeness and communication around access even when it is not possible to fully understand someone’s experience and why they have certain access needs.

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