If you spend enough time in Toulouse, you\u2019ll inevitably come across a space equipped with accommodations for people who are disabled, or \u201cen situation de handicap,\u201d whether it\u2019s a designated space for a wheelchair in the bus or guide dog being trained in the train station. Toulouse\u2019s universities are no exception\u2014while walking around the University of Toulouse 2 Jean Jaur\u00e8s you will see people using tactile guides, in wheelchairs, and with assistive walking devices. In observing these accommodations at our university, we were curious to know how the French perceive disability in a university context. And knowing that 80% of people who identify as disabled in France qualify their disability as invisible\u2014meaning mental, cognitive, or sensory conditions\u2014we were particularly curious to know if there is also a network of accommodations for invisible disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before diving into the question of disability, let us look at the French university system. In contrast with the American system which is characterized by its high admission fees and selectivity, the French system values an education for all, in keeping with the French principle of equality. Thus, it\u2019s education for the majority that counts and not that of the individual. Hence why the famous \u201ccours magistral\u201d or grand lecture where the professor speaks for four hours in an amphitheater of a hundred students is so common\u2014it facilitates the diffusion of information. But when one student has a specific need, how does the university take care of these individuals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although today the evidence of accommodations on university campuses for students who are disabled is visible, this wasn\u2019t always the case. In 2005, France enacted a law ensuring equal access to and participation in governmental services and programs for all disabled people. Since that year, the number of students who are disabled in universities has significantly grown. However, even though the numbers have increased, they are not distributed evenly across all academic disciplines. For example, while students with physical disabilities are distributed evenly across the disciplines, students with invisible disabilities are more represented in technological universities and departments of arts, languages, and literatures. Thus, it is clear that services for students with invisible disabilities are less developed than those for students with physical disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2023, the University of Toulouse 2 Jean Jaur\u00e8s has offered its students three free 45-minute sessions with a psychologist. In comparison with our American universities, the university does not promote this service as loudly. In our universities, there are both institutional and student-run organizations that provide for students\u2019 well-being, offer meditation sessions, or facilitate conversations about mental health. From our conversations with our hosts, we\u2019ve learned that these subjects are avoided in France, even though the need to discuss them is recognized. We believe that talking about mental health is the first step in recognizing invisible disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One can observe a small microcosm in the treatment of people with disabilities in France universities. During our first months in France, we became familiar with the several accommodations that are visible in the infrastructure of the University of Toulouse Jean Jaures. There are tactile strips on the sidewalks to help the visually impaired, as well as elevators and ramps for those who use wheelchairs. Where I am from, tactile bands are fairly uncommon and it is rare to see them extend for the entirety of a path, but at UTDJ (University of Toulouse Jean Jaures) they traverse from one side of campus to the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, we should question the accessibility to accommodations for people who have invisible disabilities, especially in an educational setting. In the United States, the debate surrounding reasonable accommodations for invisible disabilities is fierce. The \u201cVarsity Blues\u201d scandal that broke in 2019 was a criminal conspiracy to cheat the college admission system. One major part of the crime was the falsification of invisible disabilities like ADHD and dyslexia that qualify students for accommodations during testing (Vox). It seems to me that the conversation in France is more about enlarging access to accommodations and is not yet about who should qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coincidentally, the three authors of this article are in the same class at UTDJ, and we had an experience pertinent to the question of accommodation and invisible disability in the classroom. In the first month of class, a student became overstimulated because of noises outside and inside the classroom. She asked if the professor could address the noise, especially the feedback from his microphone. In response, the professor intentionally made more noise, as a joke. The student was very much overwhelmed and left the classroom for several minutes to gather herself. The professor was concerned that she had left, but before she had it seemed to me that he didn\u2019t understand why she would have asked for this change. The student had issues with overstimulation, but the professor was not familiar with the concept or didn\u2019t recognize the importance of what she was asking. It is easy to understand the necessary differences in how to teach the blind or the deaf. Still, differences in attention or mentality are more difficult to understand for those who are inexperienced with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not the case that France doesn\u2019t have accommodations within its education system, in comparison to the US it is different. The idea that mental or invisible disabilities are controversial and potentially unaccommodatable is uniquely American. The case in France seems to be more about a lack of total comprehension of the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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What constitutes a handicap? Or an infirmity? Or an incapacity? These words are in French with a cultural connotation that French people understand in a way that I never will because French is not my maternal language. Even if I spend the rest of my life studying French, there will always be things I don\u2019t understand because of this language barrier. So, I have no interest in judging the French language or the French for how they use their language that I don\u2019t fully understand. However, the words \u201chandicap\u201d, \u201cInfirmity\u201d, and \u201cincapacity\u201d make me uncomfortable as a person who doctors and psychiatrists would label as disabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been two months since I received a diagnosis saying I have dyslexia and generalized anxiety. I was eight years old when I learned to read, and the books that I read were for babies like the \u201cBob Books\u201d. At the same time that I was reading baby books, my classmates were reading \u201cHarry Potter\u201d and \u201cAre You There God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret\u201d. I failed all of my spelling tests and my teachers used to keep me in from recess to practice my spelling, but I was never tested for dyslexia. I have always struggled with spelling and testing, so I decided to only take classes at Grinnell (my University in the U.S.) where I could write my papers on my laptop with the wonderful gift of spell check. Unfortunately, that was not a possibility here in Toulouse, so I asked for testing accommodations, which I received easily and have in place now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My whole life I have never had a disability. I have done classes and research in disability studies. My friends and sisters have disabilities, but I never thought that I had one. In the past few weeks, I have been applying to summer jobs and internships at publishing houses, and each application has a question that asks if you are disabled. I don\u2019t have to respond and even if I did, the employer couldn\u2019t use the information against me, but I couldn\u2019t say yes because I didn\u2019t believe that I was disabled. I have difficulty with spelling, math, and sometimes reading, all of which are connected to my dyslexia, but I have to do everything that other students do. I have two literature majors, one in French and one in English. I have done all the calculus that my college offers. And I read recreationally more than any of my friends or family. I don\u2019t consider myself disabled, but that is a title I have now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In English, we use the word \u201cdisabled\u201d instead of \u201chandicapped\u201d because the word \u201chandicapped\u201d was used as an insult and it now has a negative connotation. The word \u201cdisabled\u201d does not have the same history or negative connotation so many disabled people use the term \u201cdisabled\u201d in place of \u201chandicapped\u201d. The words \u201chandicap\u201d, \u201cinfirmit\u00e9\u201d, et \u201cincapacit\u00e9 \u201c remind me of the words we no longer use in English and I was curious if they too had negative associations. I looked online and found the site \u201cHandicap.Fr<\/em>\u201d which had information, programs, news, and resources for disabled people. It was really interesting to read because the author, E. Dal\u2019Secco, shared a brief history of the terminology, the political implications, the debates around the best ways to discuss disabilities and disabled people, and the implications in France that come with the label of disability. He said that the word \u201cHandicap\u00e9\u201d was a replacement for other words like \u201cinvalides, ali\u00e9n\u00e9s, anormaux, d\u00e9ficients, paralytiques\u201d (Dal\u2019Secco). When he wrote the article in 2013 there were people who wanted to use the term \u201cpersonne en situation de handicap\u201d. We have the same discussion in the United States with the phrase \u201cperson with a disability\u201d being used instead of \u201cdisabled\u201d and there are a lot of disabled people in the U.S. who prefer the phrase \u201cdisabled person\u201d or \u201cdisabled\u201d and terms that highlight the humanity of people over their condition. Dal\u2019Secco shared a similar sentiment in his piece when he asked why disability is the only title that society feels the need to use \u201cpersonne en situation de\u2026\u201d. It seems weird to beat around the bush and use a phrase to describe what can be said with one word; it sends the message that disability is something bad or strange. Like the idea that someone can\u2019t say disabled because being disabled is terrible, so it’s necessary for everyone to use a person with a disability in order to avoid the subject and put distance between the speaker and the capacity to be disabled. Disability isn\u2019t an insult. Dal\u2019Secco also shared how difficult it is to choose a word or label that everyone in a community will agree with and want. There is disagreement within the disability community in France over what word would be best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that I don\u2019t have the right to judge the situation or debates in France around disability because I am not a part of that community. I am however happy to know that there are people who are discussing the subject and who want to find a respectful word. I think that with time I will become more comfortable with acknowledging my disability, but it won\u2019t ever become the entirety of who I am. E. Dal Secco touched on this in his article when he wrote \u201cIt isn\u2019t a detail; words have considerable importance. I have been blind for fifteen years but disabled isn\u2019t my identity\u201d (Dal\u2019Secco\u2013Translated from French to English). In French or English, we need to use respectful words when we discuss people\u2013\u2013regardless of the topic. Everyone deserves respect, and the words we use are a good first step to achieving this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n La Bibliographie<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dal\u2019Secco, E. \u201cInfirme \u00e0 Personne En Situation de Handicap\u202f: Combat De Mots.\u201d Handicap.Fr<\/em>, le 9 janvi\u00e9r, 2013, informations.handicap.fr\/a-choix-des-mots-5633.php.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Juneja, Aditi. \u201cThe Most Reprehensible Part of the Admissions Scandal: Faking Disability Accommodations.\u201d Vox<\/em>, Vox, 14 Mar. 2019, www.vox.com\/first-person\/2019\/3\/14\/18265874\/college-admissions-fraud-fbi-disability-accommodations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you spend enough time in Toulouse, you\u2019ll inevitably come across a space equipped with accommodations for people who are disabled, or \u201cen situation de handicap,\u201d whether it\u2019s a designated space for a wheelchair in the bus or guide dog being trained in the train station. Toulouse\u2019s universities are no exception\u2014while walking around the University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[343165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-une-en-anglais-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}