Catherine Lewis

Dr. Catherine Lewis (she/her) serves as Director of Disability Services at RIT, where she is honored to lead a team committed to ensuring Disabled students have equitable access and empowered experiences in higher education. Having worked in higher education for over a decade, Catherine is committed to the idea that access matters in all aspects of the college experience, and has held accessibility-focused leadership roles in college admissions and community engagement departments.  Prior to centering her career fully on accessibility, Dr. Lewis maintained an active career as a flutist and music educator. An alumnus of Rice University and the Eastman School of Music as well as the Warner School of Education at University of Rochester, her research explores intersections between disability advocacy and the arts.  In addition to her work at RIT, Catherine is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and universities across the United States, and teaches courses on disability, the arts, and inclusive higher education at University of Rochester and Harvard University. 

1. How do you teach or exemplify Applied Critical Thinking?

As both a disability services professional and proud Disabled woman, I have long grappled with the friction that exists between dominant, deficit-based models of disability and my own understanding of disability.  My personal definition of disability is “necessary creativity.” The experience of living disability in a world largely not designed for disabled body/minds allows disabled folx to develop creativity and ingenuity by necessity. Critiquing deficit-based approaches to allows us to understand disability as a powerful facet of human diversity that can shape people and communities in meaningful ways. To quote artist Beth Mount, I invite our campus community to “imagine a world that works for everyone.”  What could our campus community and our world be if we leaned into rather than away from disability?  How our engagement with disability change if we asked not what we can accomplish in spite of disability, but because of it?

2. Why do you think Applied Critical Thinking is important in your domain or role?

It’s my honor to lead a Disability Services Office committed to a socially just approach to access in higher education. Doing this work takes critical thinking on a number of levels. First, we must recognize and critique the medical model of disability, which frames disability as an individual deficit within a person that is best addressed by “fixing” or “curing” a person. On the contrary, the lived experience of disability changes in context. Inaccessibility is not caused by individual disabilities, but results from barriers in the environment, structures, and attitudes around us.  We must work every day to think critically about the barriers disabled students, faculty, staff, and community members face. The most important skills for accessibility professionals are strong noticing skills and creative problem-solving skills, which allow us to resolve barriers for the students we support. Second, accommodation coordination is not a one-size-fits all formula. Each encounter we have with a student seeking accommodations requires critical thinking. How does your disability manifest for you?  What barriers are you facing? How can we work together and with partners across campus to resolve those barriers?  That’s what makes each day in this role different and energizing.

3. Can you share a story where quality Applied Critical Thinking was key to your success?

As a disabled mom, my pregnancy and parenting journey has been an exercise in critical thinking!  For example, given the limited resources and tools that exist to support disabled parents, I worked closely with biomedical engineering students during my pregnancy to create a custom mobility solution that would allow me to safely carry my newborn while also maintaining my own physical stability by keeping both hands on a walker/rollator.  As a parent, I am constantly thinking about how I can maintain access for myself while caring for my child. As my son grows, I think often about how to teach him about and expose him to the Disability and Deaf community so that he grows up with an innate respect for access and human diversity.

4. How do you use critical thinking in other areas of your life outside of RIT?

Navigating a world not designed for disabled body/minds takes critical thinking every day! Critical thinking and disabled living are deeply linked.

5. Any last critical thoughts?

I am so proud to be part of a campus community committed to access and equity. While we as a campus (and as a world!) will always have work to do to achieve full access and inclusion, I notice that RIT listens deeply and practices innovative, critical thinking in all it does. I am hopeful that, with this approach as our foundation, we will grow in our accessibility as well as our celebration of Disability identity and culture.