Shifting Blind Identities in Higher Education: Stories of Selfhood

Buy Print

Shifting Blind Identities in Higher Education: Stories of Selfhood

edited by Alison Cook-Sather
by Alison Cook-Sather

Lever Press, 2026

ISBNs

Paper: 978-1-64315-099-4

eISBN: 978-1-64315-100-7

About the Book

Shifting Blind Identities in Higher Education features accounts of how blindness and low vision intersect with other dimensions of identity for both students and faculty in higher education. Contributors from a range of institutional contexts illuminate “common but not comparable” experiences, as well as importantly different ones, and explore different intersections of identity while navigating higher education spaces. Each chapter addresses these questions: What is the relationship between seeing and selfhood? What choices do students and faculty make about how they experience and represent the intersections of their vision condition and other dimensions of their identity? What do authors wish others to understand, consider, let go of, and/or embrace regarding their experiences of navigating higher education with blindness or low vision?

Writing in their own unique voices, each author shares details of their lived experiences; analyses of how those are shaped by institutions, social norms, and individuals; and offers action steps for how everyone can make higher education more welcoming to and supportive of not only those with blindness or low vision but also those with a wide diversity of identities and experiences. Shifting Blind Identities in Higher Education inspires both insight and action into cultivating a more accessible and inclusive space in higher education.

About the Author

Alison Cook-Sather is the Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Education at Bryn Mawr College, Director of the Teaching and Learning Institute of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, and an internationally recognized leader in student-faculty pedagogical partnership and student voice.

Reviews

“These ten authors share their stories with candor, vulnerability and humor. Their intelligence, determination and resourcefulness foretell success in higher education. However, systematic barriers still stand in their way. This book is a call to action to university administrators to move beyond mere accommodation toward true equity and inclusion.”

— Georgina Kleege, UC Berkeley

“Shifting Blind Identities in Higher Education is a much-needed volume that shares the powerful lived experiences of faculty members and students with blindness and low vision. I commend the authors and insights provided, advocating for shifts to more equity-minded cultures at colleges and universities. This book is a valuable resource for making higher education more accessible.”

— Tracie Marcella Addy, Institute for Teaching, Innovation, and Inclusive Pedagogy (TIIP)