This is really wonderful and thought-provoking! I have recently been in conversations discussing how UDL or similar efforts to address inequities for students with disabilities will likely never be enough, because there are so many different individual and contextual factors that even with multiple pathways and choice (which UDL emphasizes), not every student will have what they need. And what is helpful for some students with disabilities will be harmful for others, much as you describe here with the peppercorns. And that’s just within the focus of ableism, not even considering the other, intersecting, causes of inequity here.

One question the diagram is raising for me: how to show visually that the causes of inequity are, as you note, sometimes (frequently) systemic? In other words, the analogy works well in one respect, because the “pathogens” here are deeply harmful like viruses. And we should do all we can to protect against them and eradicate them. And further, even when one does some eradication there can be mutations and harms crop up in other ways so vigilance is important. At the same time, though, the fact that these even exist, in the context of inequities, is due to deeper structural issues. I wonder if the idea of individual “viruses” going through holes captures that? It could feel a little bit like these are sort of individual problems, individual diseases, if that makes sense?

Or maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way: one could say that the perpetuation and spread of the current pandemic is also due to structural issues and inequities, such that some communities and individuals are much more susceptible than others. So the viruses, the individual actions or situations are the symptoms of the much larger structural problem. Just thinking out loud here.

I think I got hung up on the image of individual viruses and sort of wondered about the structures behind them. But I’m not sure if my hang up really makes sense.

Thank you for sharing this; it made me really think more deeply, as you can see!