This dissertation examines the experiences of people with disabilities in academia. It is oriented autoethnographically by my own experiences, and those of other students and faculty, to make vivid the phenomenological realities of living on crip time, navigating independence, the cognitive load of disability, and disclosure management. I argue that contemporary policy and practice intend to improve access for people with disabilities, but actually perpetuate the inequities they proport to ameliorate. Ethnographic stories illustrate how living on crip time is constraining in the ableist spaces of academia. The concept of independence has an outsized role in the lives of people with disabilities compared to non-disabled people, and popular discourses of independence shape decision making and impact the well-being of people with disabilities. Disability also adds to a person’s cognitive load—the burden of constantly navigating inaccessible places and technologies—affecting a person’s well-being and potentially worsening access barriers. While Universal Design for Learning is often represented as a panacea, I argue that it creates a good foundation, but some individualization is still necessary. Throughout, I show how people use a combination of disability expertise and interdependence to creatively navigate inaccessibility and ableism.