Ally Kim ’24 presents her research in CaMD, covering social stigma against disabled people in both Andover and Seoul, Korea.
Exploring social stigma surrounding people with disabilities, Ally Kim ’24 delivered a Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD) spotlight presentation on November 2, emphasizing the importance of fostering conversations within school communities about accommodating disabilities.
Kim focused her research on surveys that measured the extent of disability stigma at Andover and in Seoul, South Korea. She sent out electronic surveys to Andover students and faculty to collect data on their inclination toward disability stigma and made accommodation requests to several private academies in Seoul in June of this year.
“I visited between 20 to 30 tutoring academies in Seoul and…went to all the front desks of those academies and asked, ‘Hey, I have a sister who is going to need accommodations. Would you be able to accommodate that?’ Not too shockingly, they were like ‘I’ve never heard of this request.’ In Korea, people with disabilities never really feel that academic institutions are responsible for accommodating their needs, so the basic expectation is that they will be rejected. Most of the tutoring academies…said [they] can’t do anything technical because [they] don’t have the resources and it’s not available to them. So [they]’re not going to be able to accommodate cochlear implants or anything of that sort,” said Kim.
Kim’s faculty advisor, Laura Warner, Director of the Academic Skills Center and Office of Disability Services, restated the importance of raising more awareness and conversation about disabilities on campus to create a positive impact on students and adults with disabilities.
“One of the things [Ally] said is that she wants there to be more conversation about stigma, disability…and all types of diversity on campus. I would echo that. We don’t talk as much about accessibility, about the impact of a wide range of disabilities on students and adults on this campus, and we don’t do a lot of learning about it, so I hope we can continue to find ways to do that in the future,” said Warner.
The presentation featured two sections, with one analyzing the results of the surveys and the other dedicated to audience discussion and questions. Annabelle Carrizosa ’25, who attended the presentation, praised Kim’s research and expressed her reaction to the results that Kim’s surveys revealed.
“It was really interesting to see the results of the questionnaire that she did [because] I expected different things. I am very comfortable talking about my dyslexia. It made me a little bit sad to see that other people weren’t, and that’s something that I would really love to see change at Andover because it is a very diverse place. Accessibility is part of diversity,” said Carrizosa.
For Sakina Cotton ’24, Kim’s presentation revealed how disability is viewed outside of the Andover community. Cotton appreciated how the discussion focused on the need to advocate for disabilities alongside the legal aspect of disability stigma.
“I definitely learned about how disabled people are treated differently in South Korea, which is Ally’s perspective. What I think I will take with me the most is just understanding that disabilities are something that transcends where people are coming from and depending on the resources they’re given and how much, as an able person, I give to them and advocate as well. That’s going to be very helpful in the long run for building movement that highlights other people’s strengths and tackles stigmas that you really can’t keep track of through the legal [aspect],” said Cotton.
With her Spotlight presentation, Kim hopes that students will be able to understand both types of disability stigma: policy and social acceptance. She emphasized her intentions to motivate the Andover community to work together to reduce disability stigma in the future.
“I hope that students learn what disability stigma is because I think it’s a topic that should be more talked about, but [is] not as often talked about. So I hope through this experience that people continue to think about the policy and anti-discrimination aspect of disability but also further on to making it socially acceptable and making sure that people are able to have self-love through true social acceptance. And that’s what I hope to do through my presentation, first of all, raise awareness on the stigma that does exist and second of all, try to think of ways to ameliorate that stigma through community-based efforts,” said Kim.
