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Abstract

Despite the developments being made in the realm of higher education in providing space and accommodations for Neurodivergent and Neuroqueer learners, the ableist foundations of these academic institutions still maintain an active, albeit masked, role within the lived experiences of Neuroqueer individuals in academia. This operative role of ableism in higher education disempowers such learners from pursuing academic accommodations which would otherwise greatly influence classroom contributions and even, in some cases, discourages them from continuing their educational pursuits. Within this essay, I investigate the ways in which ableism maintains its active role in academia and suggest policies and pedagogies which can be enacted to obliterate the presence of academic ableism. Additionally, I examine through critical analysis of various Neurodivergent poets the ways in which poetry functions as modes of self-empowerment, self-compassion, and resistance for Neuroqueer learners in the face of oppression and otherization. My findings reveal that Neuroqueer individuals find the contemporary process of obtaining accommodations through biographic mediation to be dehumanizing and resulting in very lackluster accommodations. I suggest that autobiographical mediation with personalized accommodations made by the Neuroqueer individuals themselves, as opposed to the institution, will result in greater agency and participation both within and outside the classroom setting. Furthermore, my research affirms that creating and engaging with poetry strengthens Neuroqueer social skills, including competency in self-advocacy, which, in turn, fosters feelings of self-empowerment, self-compassion, and a drive to resist oppression, marginalization, and otherization. By dismantling policies which actively stigmatize and oppress Neuroqueerness, replacing them with policies of a more humanizing approach, and teaching poetry as a means of fostering skills of self-advocacy, we will not only see a tremendous increase in Neuroqueer graduates from higher education, but we will additionally see a shift in the broader perception of Neuroqueerness; transforming visions revolving around “deficits” and “difficulties” into unique capabilities and bold, unyielding individuality.

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