Accessing Disability Culture (ADC) is a student-authored digital anthology that highlights disability culture, lived experience, and inaccessibility at the University of Michigan. Published in 2024, ADC is a project of the DISCO Network, a consortium that imagines anti-ableist and anti-racist digital futures.
Featuring nonfiction, poetry, graphic narrative, and visual art, Accessing Disability Culture dreams about radically just disability futures. Without a Disability Cultural Center, it can be hard for neurodivergent / chronically ill / disabled / Deaf / questioning students to find each other. However, we are here. We meet our community members here and there, at club meetings, classes, strikes, sports games, protests, parties — often in an accidental way. Through this digital series, we can meet intentionally. Here we can talk about our experiences freely, with and for each other. This anthology is not just for future students. It is for all of us who benefit from the sharing and celebration of disability culture and community.
Accessing Disability Culture is freely available for online reading or download on the DISCO Network website. More than 200 printed copies of the anthology have now been distributed to public libraries, community centers, archives, disability-focused organizations, and community third spaces in Michigan and across the US.
Editorial team
Lead editor:
Tess Carichner (School of Nursing, 2025; Digital Accessible Futures Lab, Research Associate; UMSN Instructional Aide)
Editorial committee:
David Adelman, Postdoctoral Fellow, Digital Accessible Futures Lab; Affiliate Faculty, Digital Studies Institute
Maddie Agne, DISCO Administrative Assistant, 2023 Creative Writing Alum of the University of Michigan
Sarah Hughes, GSRA (Digital Accessible Futures Lab); PhD Candidate, Joint Program in English & Education
Pratiksha T. Menon, GSRA (Digital Accessible Futures Lab), PhD Candidate, Department of Communication & Media
Giselle Mills, DISCO Grant Initiatives Program Coordinator, 2023 History Honors Alum of the University of Michigan
Elise C. Nagy, GSRA (Digital Accessible Futures Lab), PhD Candidate, Joint Program in English & Women’s and Gender Studies
M. Remi Yergeau, Arthur F. Thurnau Associate Professor, Digital Studies Institute & Department of English; Director, Digital Accessible Futures Lab; Associate Director, Digital Studies Institute
Accessing Disability Culture received support from the UM Initiative in Disability Studies, the UM Barger Leadership Institute, the Digital Accessible Futures Lab, and the DISCO Network.