The Struggle You Can’t See

This week’s review analyzes literature on disabled students’ experiences in higher education and examines systemic barriers that continue to bar inclusion for neurodivergent and invisibly disabled students.

Posted on April 28, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

The Struggle You Can’t See: Experiences of Neurodivergent and Invisibly Disabled Students in Higher Education

Lierman, Ash. Open Book Publishers, 2024
282p bibl index, 9781805113751 $44.95, 9781805113744 $27.95, 9781805113768

While much literature currently exists that presents disabled students’ lived experiences with neurodivergence and invisible disabilities, Lierman (Rowan Univ.) takes this body of knowledge one step further by providing a broad but detailed analysis of themes and patterns within the literature and provides an insightful commentary informed by their own experience as a disabled and queer educator and librarian. This timely and badly needed text is organized into three sections: “Foundations,” which examines the history of disability education and offers a description of appropriate vocabulary; “Challenges,” which studies some of the barriers to providing equitable service to disabled students; and “Directions for Positive Change,” which offers some potential solutions. Lierman provides insight into the experiences of disabled students and the systemic injustices within the higher education system that both isolate disabled students and fail to give them the tools they need to succeed. A particularly strong chapter relates to the intersection of disability with other marginalized communities, especially students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and gender and ethnicity. This is a powerful text that everyone who works in higher education, or plans to, needs to read.

Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: K. Albright, Otterbein University
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Education
Choice Issue: Jun 2025

The Struggle You Can’t See

This week’s review analyzes literature on disabled students’ experiences in higher education and examines systemic barriers that continue to bar inclusion for neurodivergent and invisibly disabled students.