Accessibility for Whom? Teaching Graphic Novels to Represent the Embodied Experiences of Neurodiverse AFAB Intersectional Identities

This essay explores how graphic novels can be used in the classroom to offer engagement and representation of neurodiverse learners. This research takes an intersectional approach to neurodiversity by focusing on how visuals are used to depict the embodied experiences of students who are both neurodiverse and assigned female at birth. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is discussed and analyzed through this intersectional lens as a way to teach these visual embodiments of identity in upper-level high school classes. Brenna Thummler’s recent graphic novel, Delicates, is also discussed as a way to engage and represent intersectional neurodiverse and AFAB identities to younger high school or middle school students.