Disability, Identity, and Professionalism: Precarity in Librarianship

Abstract

Although the field of disability studies has examined disability across many contexts, the experience of library workers remains largely unexamined. Library literature tends to focus on the experiences of library users, rather than address the structural inequities in the profession itself. In the United States, current conversations within higher education and academic librarianship around resilience and professionalism create additional barriers to inclusion and exclude the lived experiences of those with disabilities. Additionally, existing processes designed to address disability treat its existence as a problem in need of a solution, and in doing so, further contribute to the workplace precarity experienced by library workers. Instead of maintaining existing systemic barriers and perpetuating an ableist professional ideal that places responsibility on the individual to be resilient, libraries and library workers need to redefine professionalism, minimize the stigma associated with any type of disability, and reduce precarity for disabled library employees. Only then can libraries and library workers focus on equity and inclusion for all.