Cripping the Border – Acompañamiento as Access: An Ethnographic Case Study of Transborder Youth with Disabilities

<p>The U.S.-Mexico border is a historical, geopolitical site of intense militarization where colonial logics of "othering" converge to marginalize disabled transborder youth. While transborder studies have expanded, students with disabilities remain relegated to the "void" and contained by educational systems that prioritize surveillance over access. Grounded in Sepúlveda’s (2011) acompañamiento and Transborder DisCrit, this ethnographic case study examines the lived experiences of both students and their families who cross the border daily to attend school in the U.S. It frames these journeys not as mere commutes, but as acts of defiance within the broader disability rights movement.</p> <p>As a teacher-activist, the researcher enacted acompañamiento through a decolonial methodology of community circles, testimonios, and go-along interviews conducted on both sides of the border. Findings reveal that these students face "multiplied marginalization" through compounded racism and ableism in two nations. Yet, despite these conditions, students and families forge unique transfronterizo identities that defy the gendered and physical binaries imposed by colonization. These co-theorists architect "spaces of accessibility" by utilizing radical imaginations to navigate a militarized space with dignity while narrating a border-crossing logics.</p> <p>This dissertation advances a pedagogical reorientation of Special Education and Disability Studies by positioning acompañamiento as a rigorous tool for accompliceship. It demonstrates that transborder disabled youth are not passive objects of remediation, but essential theorists who alongside their families and parents reorganize our understanding of collective and relational agency. This work asserts that in the pursuit of a borderless world, the lived expertise of transfronterizo families is the primary map toward justice.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD Education for Social Justice

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation: Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2026

Author dc:creator

• Amaral, Marco O

• Transborder DisCrit
• Disability Studies
• ACOMPAÑAMIENTO
• Pedagogy
• Ethnography
• Case Study
• Borders
• Special Education
• Community-Based Research
• Disability and Equity in Education
• Environmental Studies
• Other Education
• Other Political Science
• Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies
• Secondary Education and Teaching
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Social Justice
• Special Education and Teaching

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/1126

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.sandiego.edu:dissertations-2136