On April 6th, the Faculty of Education at Unicamp hosted the lecture “Affective Accessibility: stereotypes of disability, access fatigue, and inclusion,” given by Professor Sônia Caldas Pessoa from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Promoted by the Unicamp Teaching and Learning Support Space, [ea]², as part of the 2nd Unicamp Accessibility Week, the activity aimed to encourage reflection on the ethical, political, and practical obstacles still present in the inclusion of people with disabilities in higher education.
Throughout her lecture, Sônia Caldas Pessoa drew attention to the need to broaden the more traditional understanding of accessibility, often associated only with technical resources, physical adaptations, or formal compliance with legislation. In her approach, the notion of affective accessibility refers to a set of relationships, attitudes, and institutional dispositions that allow the university community to be affected by situations of exclusion and to act collectively to transform them. More than an individual response of empathy, it is, according to the researcher, about recognizing that inclusion requires policies, regulations, and, at the same time, a daily commitment to practices of welcoming and collaboration.
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Between the law and the daily grind.
One of the central points of the discussion was the critique of the stereotypes of incapacity that still mark the experience of students with disabilities in universities. The professor observed that these stereotypes manifest themselves when the academic capacity of these people is doubted, when their presence is treated as a heroic exception, or when they are denied adequate conditions for participation. Instead of favoring inclusion, these attitudes reinforce structural forms of ableism and produce what she calls access fatigue: the permanent wear and tear on those who need to fight every day to enter, remain, and be recognized in the university space.
The professor also emphasized that the continued enrollment of students with disabilities cannot depend on extraordinary efforts to access rights already guaranteed by law. In this sense, she criticized the normalization of discourses that transform these trajectories into stories of individual overcoming, erasing the structural nature of the barriers faced. People with disabilities, she stated, should not be subjected to excessive exhaustion to occupy places that also rightfully belong to them.
Inclusion as an institutional culture
When discussing the responsibilities of the university community, Sônia Caldas Pessoa argued that inclusion is built through a combination of hospitality, welcoming, and discourse. According to her, faculty, administrative staff, and students all play a decisive role in creating more inclusive environments, whether by listening to individual differences, offering adequate conditions for participation, or being mindful of the language used in daily academic life. She observed that when legally mandated demands need to be constantly justified or claimed, the university environment ceases to recognize rights and begins to operate as if it were granting favors.
The speaker also emphasized that the challenges cannot be solved solely through individual goodwill. Among the most sensitive points for inclusion to cease being an abstract principle and become a daily practice, she highlighted the need for proactive institutional policy, with planning, resources, and broad involvement of the university community. She also pointed out the importance of reviewing entry and retention processes, as well as expanding ongoing training actions, campaigns, and workshops capable of addressing the cultural resistance that still exists around the topic.
Beyond the formal compliance with the law
In conclusion, Sônia Caldas Pessoa argued that universities should prioritize the inclusion of people with disabilities in their institutional development plans. According to the researcher, simply complying with minimum legal requirements is no longer enough: it is necessary to recognize historical processes of exclusion and act vigilantly against ableist practices, including those that present themselves under the guise of inclusion. From this perspective, accessibility cannot be restricted to specialized centers or isolated actions, but must permeate the pillars of the public university—teaching, research, and outreach—in order to guarantee a lasting presence that is not marked by exhaustion.
Held in the Main Hall of the Faculty of Education, the activity reinforced the importance of considering accessibility as an institutional and collective commitment. As part of the program for the 2nd Week of Affective Accessibility at Unicamp, the lecture contributed to broadening the debate on inclusion in higher education and to reaffirming that a public university committed to diversity needs to confront not only material barriers, but also symbolic, cultural, and relational barriers.
