Parental Allyship for Children With Dyslexia: A Conceptual Lens on Disability Experience

Abstract

Current understandings of disability experience are centered around individuals who hold the disability identity and membership in the marginalized group. This perspective does not include the experiences of disability allies, such as parents, who act alongside their children to support their access and engagement in the education setting. This partial perspective is of concern because it does not reflect the depth and complexity of disability experience for those in allyship roles. This paper builds on current understandings of disability experience by introducing an emerging conceptual lens that defines and describes the nature of disability experience for those acting in allyship roles. Attention is focused on children with dyslexia and their parents to illustrate this conceptual lens. Extending on ecological models of interactions and understandings of subjective experience, the authors highlight how the proximity of the parental experience to the child’s dyslexic identity shapes parental allyship and present a lens of disability experience that includes primary, vicarious, and primary adjacent experience. The proposed conceptual lens offers researchers and educators an opportunity to view disability experience and allyship from an alternative perspective, and in doing so, consider a broader understanding of disability experience and allyship that would potentially provide insights into parent–school partnerships.