What barriers and traumas do students with disabilities, particularly those with visual impairments, experience in higher education settings?

Drawing on personal experience, author Stephanie Levin provides an overview of disability history within higher education settings and explains the impact of poor care on disabled students. Stephanie was only 20 when she experienced retinal detachment that required surgery. Shortly afterwards she experienced retinal detachment in the same eye which resulted in vision loss. With her newfound identity as a visually impaired woman, Stephanie struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. She refused accommodations within her university for fear of stigmatization, but she found that her acquaintances, professors, and friends viewed her differently.

Through themes of trauma and identity, this book is ideal reading for teachers, carers, and disabled students as well as students of Disability Studies and Education.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 Disability history in higher education: The good, the bad, and the ugly
  • Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet: Pioneer for the deaf
  • Edward Miner Gallaudet: Following in his father’s footsteps
  • The Great War (1914–1918)
  • The Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Act
  • Ohio Mechanics Institute
  • The Veterans Bureau
  • Second World War (1939–1945)
  • Serviceman’s Readjustment Act
  • College and university campus reform
  • So, do you wanna start a revolution?
  • Crusaders of 1930s to the 1940s
  • Disability in the 1950s
  • Change is coming: The 1960s to the 1970s
  • Change is here: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504)
  • A radical movement: The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
  • The Capitol Crawl of 1990
  • More change: The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008
  • Providing clarity: The Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008
  • Disability history: Final thoughts
• 2 Disability within higher education today
  • From an undergraduate standpoint
  • Mental health concerns
  • From a graduate standpoint
  • Current view of disabilities within higher education
  • AHEAD
  • Disability support offices
  • Professionals of disability services
  • Failure to request accommodations
  • Do I really belong?
  • Disability in higher education today: Final feelings and thoughts
• 3 Visual impairment: A definition and overview
  • Visual impairment characteristics
  • Forms of visual impairment
  • Amblyopia
  • Aniridia
  • Albinism
  • Blindness
  • Cataracts
  • Color blindness
  • Glaucoma
  • Hyperopia
  • Retinal detachment
  • Visual impairments: Closing comments
• 4 Disability stigma: The never-ending cycle
  • What is disability stigma?
  • What is ableism?
  • My experiences with ableism and stigma
    • Class is in session
    • Friends forever?
    • An everlasting love?
    • Nice to see you, too
    • Dinner and a show
    • She can’t even go on rides
    • Stay hidden at all costs
    • Disability stigma: Breaking the cycle
• 5 Barriers to inclusivity
  • What is a barrier?
  • Barriers pertaining to disability
  • Medical model of disability
  • Basic premise of the medical model
  • Social model of disability
  • Basic premise of the social model
  • Disability culture
  • Disability Rag
  • Criticisms of the social model of disability
    • Bias persists
      • Barriers for visually impaired students
    • Issues with admissions
    • Issues with accommodations
    • Issues with technology access
    • Issues with expensive technology
    • Issues with the campus environment
    • Issues with socialization
    • Engagement, community, belonging, access, and disability
    • Conclusion
• 6 PTSD, anxiety, and depression, oh my!
  • What is trauma?
  • Trauma-related statistics
  • What is post-traumatic stress disorder?
  • Symptoms of re-experience
  • Symptoms of avoidance
  • Symptoms of reactivity and arousal
  • Symptoms of mood and cognition
  • What is anxiety?
  • My experiences with anxiety
  • What is depression?
  • My experiences with depression
  • Conclusion
• 7 Forging ahead: Reconstructing my identity
  • Who I was
  • High school years
  • College: The calm before the storm
  • Who am I?
  • Pressure cooker
  • Breakdown
  • Picking up the pieces
  • My parents
  • My friends
  • Sue: My vision technician
  • Time for therapy
  • Breakthrough
  • Who I am today
  • New opportunities
  • Conclusion
• 8 Advocacy and empathy: We have to do better
  • Be an advocate
  • Be a source of comfort within the classroom
  • Use systems thinking
  • How did we get to this point?
  • Start talking
  • Disability promotion
  • Incorporate disability within community, belonging, access, and engagement efforts
  • Be kind
• Conclusion
• Suggested discussion questions and assignments
• References
• For further reading and viewing
• Additional resources
  • Advocacy groups
  • Suicide and domestic violence resources
  • Support group
• Index

Dr. Stephanie A.N. Levin is an educational leader, an author, and a disability advocate. Stephanie’s research focuses on disability studies and feminist studies and how inclusive practices can be promoted for women students with disabilities in higher education. Dr. Levin’s book, Picking Up the Pieces: Finding My Way as a Visually Impaired Woman in Higher Education, tells the story of how she became visually impaired as a college student while navigating ableism, a decreased sense of belonging, mental health challenges, and a loss of identity while completing her degree. Her experiences have led her to actively advocate for the disability community, and to be a voice for those who are experiencing similar challenges. In addition to publishing her book, Dr. Levin published an opinion piece with EdSurge titled, Many Students don’t Inform their Colleges About their Disability. That Needs to Change. She has also served as keynote speaker for Rowan University events such as Access and Inclusion Week and The College of Education’s Homecoming Breakfast celebration.

On Thursday April 24, 2025, we held a seminar in our Topics in Education Studies series:

Breaking Free: Rewriting the Script of Disability in American Higher Education

In this conversation between Stephanie Levin, author of Picking Up the Pieces: Finding My Way as a Visually Impaired Woman in Higher Education and Dr. Janise Hurtig, Lived Places Publishing Collection Editor, they discussed ableism as a systemic issue that continues to plague American postsecondary education – and how educators can help break the cycle of ableism and further promote inclusiveness within their institutions.

We received this quote from an attendee:

I LOVED IT! Everything [Stephanie] said resonated with me. From feeling less than, identifying, the invisible disability, "you look fine!," to the constant need to prove you’re struggling just to be believed. The part about masking hit me especially hard. That exhausting daily performance of “normal” just to survive in a world not built for us? Having issues with partners and other important people in my life that are supposed to be supportive… being viewed as less competent…. that’s my life. Her words made me feel seen and it helps so much to know that I am not alone.

—Anna Schultz, student at DePaul University

Stephanie Levin Interviewed on the "Demand and Disrupt" Podcast

Lived Places Publishing author Stephanie Levin was interviewed in Episode 57 of the "Demand and Disrupt" Podcast. The episode is called Breaking Through Barriers to Conquer College, and it first aired on June 28, 2025.