Using Identity Interconnections to Understand Disclosure: How Examining the Interrelated Experiences of Working-Class Students and Students With Disabilities Can Shape Student Support

In this chapter, the author explores identity interconnections of disclosure between working-class students and students with hidden disabilities. She discusses how classism and ableism serve as systems of power that necessitate and frame the disclosure process within higher education. The author provides narratives for the aforementioned Avery and Sam, two fictional students who serve as composites from the many students she have worked with, to illuminate the disclosure processes. Systems of ableism and classism place deficit labels on students with marginalized identities, making disclosure processes laden in stigma Thus, the identity interconnections between disclosure of disability and social class provide important implications for student affairs practice. Finally, students with disabilities and working-class students often feel pressure to downplay or erase identities to participate in higher education, to connect with peers, and avoid stigma. Many students like Avery and Sam navigate through higher education each year in the United States