Disability Studies Commons^™

Improving Communication Access With Deaf People Through Nursing Simulation: A Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, Jamie L. Mccartney Ph.D., Tracy Gidden, Jennifer Biggs, Kathy Geething, Karl Kosko Ph.D.

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Baccalaureate nursing and sign language interpreting students participated in a pediatric discharge simulation with a deaf person playing the role of the baby’s parent. At the conclusion of the simulation, participants were emailed a consent letter and a link to a 17-item questionnaire developed by the authors. Responses were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, whereby nonparametric statistics were calculated to examine Likert-scale items. A Mann-Whitney test statistic was calculated, instead of an independent samples t-test, given the smaller sample in the current study (n = 26). A question was posed to participants that evaluated their self-perception of the effectiveness of …

The Moderating Effect Of Positive Sexual Self-Concept On The Relationship Between Disability Impact And Satisfaction With Life., Alexandra M. Kriofske Mainella, Bianca Tocci

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Research has been produced assessing both the concept of Life Satisfaction and the impact of disability. However, there has been a lack of research assessing the intersection of disability, sexuality, and life satisfaction. This study sought to understand the relationship between improved sexual self-concept, life satisfaction, and disability impact. Sexual self-concept was examined as a moderator of the relationship between disability impact and life satisfaction. It was hypothesized that improved sexual self-concept among those living with a disability will have a positive and correlating effect on life satisfaction. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the relationship between disability impact and satisfaction …

Benefits Of Having A Disability Cultural Center At Cal Poly, Chau Nguyen

Political Science

All colleges and universities in the United States are legally required to accommodate their students with disabilities. However, many schools do not support their disabled student body in ways that go beyond what they are legally required to provide under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Though every university and college in the United States has a dedicated ADA compliance office, students with disabilities still express that their holistic needs are unmet and that they feel unsupported by their schools. Establishing Disability Cultural Programs and Centers is one method that colleges and universities …

Breaking Me Down And Lifting Me Up: An Autoethnography Of Being A Black Autistic Woman Online, Morgan Harper-Nichols

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This autoethnography investigates the diverse challenges associated with being a Black, undiagnosed autistic woman coming of age on the internet, and examines how online experiences shaped my identity over the past twenty years. Early encounters with racism and cautious self-expression on platforms such as forums, GeoCities, Myspace, and YouTube are explored as my initial efforts to "fit in" in virtual spaces. I discuss how engaging with platforms like Instagram and Etsy enabled my participation in the gig economy while grappling with my pre-diagnosis social struggles. I also share how I navigate post-2020 experiences as a Black autistic online creator, how …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Among Native Americans Within The State Of Utah, Erica Ficklin, Melissa Tehee, Sherry Marx, Eduardo Ortiz, Megan E. Golson, Tyus Roanhorse

Psychology Student Research

Currently, little research exists on disabilities among Native American communities and no research exists on how Native Americans perceive disabilities, services currently available, and unmet needs. Understanding these key areas is essential to providing efficacious and culturally relevant care. To address this gap in the literature, we used Indigenous research methodology through sharing circles throughout the state of Utah to listen and amplify the voices of the Native communities. Participants shared how they conceptualize "disability," what they thought of current services, and how they thought the needs of Native persons with disabilities should be addressed. Four major themes emerged in …

Paths To Equity: Parents In Partnership With Ucedds Fostering Black Family Advocacy For Children On The Autism Spectrum, Elizabeth H. Morgan, Benita D. Shaw, Ida Winters, Chiffon King, Jazmin Burns, Aubyn Stahmer, Gail Chodron

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Racism and ableism have doubly affected Black families of children with developmental disabilities in their interactions with disability systems of supports and services (e.g., early intervention, mental health, education, medical systems). On average, Black autistic children are diagnosed three years later and are up to three times more likely to be misdiagnosed than their non-Hispanic White peers. Qualitative research provides evidence that systemic oppression, often attributed to intersectionality, can cause circumstances where Black disabled youth are doubly marginalized by policy and practice that perpetuates inequality. School discipline policies that criminalize Black students and inadequate medical assessments that improperly support Black …

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words: Factors Influencing Disability Accommodations, Alicia E. Martin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Because not all disabilities look the same it is difficult to label a person with disabilities just by looking at them. Given that our knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions impact how we interpret our world and our willingness to act, people, including professors, may be biased toward providing accommodations for those with easily recognizable disabilities and biased against those with non-recognizable disabilities, and this may impact the disabled person’s ability to learn. This thesis aims to address whether professors’ disability-related attitudes, perceptions of accommodation reasonableness, and willingness to provide accommodations differ when the disability is recognizable (student is pictured in a …

2021 Depaul University Library And Art Museum Climate Survey Report, Wendall Sullivan, Subcommittee For The Survey And Report, Idea Committee, Depaul University Library, April Hummons, Dorian Rodriguez-Spicer, Christine Mcclure, Matthew Krause

Climate Surveys and Reports

In the fall of 2021, the DePaul University Library and Art Museum’s IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility) Committee decided to conduct a survey of the library’s climate to establish a baseline for its work. The survey was sent to all full and part-time library staff and ran for six weeks. One of the goals of the IDEA committee is to bring awareness of implicit biases, micro-aggressions, exclusionary practices, and structural racism and discrimination within Library and Art Museum operations, environment, and culture; to review, audit and propose internal polices and processes for the Library and Art Museum to implement IDEA …

Latinos With Disability In Massachusetts, Phillip Granberry, Vishakha Agarwal

Gastón Institute Publications

A disability, as defined by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is an individual’s physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Data from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey identify six disability types: hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living difficulty. In Massachusetts, approximately 108,000 Latinos have one or more of these disabilities compared to 738,000 Non-Latinos. This report examines demographic and economic characteristics of Latinos and Non-Latinos with disabilities in Massachusetts.

Belonging Amidst Bias: Embracing Difference On The Path To Common Humanity, Alyssia Sheikh

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The mindfulness community prioritizes self-awareness and common humanity, but is often entrapped by the idea that oneness is equivalent to sameness. This inclination for objectivity is rooted in the same neural propensities that facilitate bias; the brain is a subjective organ, however, and so neurologically speaking, bias is inevitable. This paper asks: Is striving for sameness separating us from interconnectedness? A human experience is a subjective, diverse, and variable one. The path to shared humanity and social justice co-occurs with increasing cultural humility through mindful awareness and acknowledging our subjective nature. Exploring our neurological tendency to make assumptions, we …

Epistemic Injustice, Endometriosis And Dance/ Movement Therapy: An Autoethnographic Investigation, Kevana West

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

As the field of dance/ movement therapy evolves to meet the demands of a rapidly changing social landscape, it is imperative that clinicians think critically about the degree to which our work is steeped in oppressive frameworks and ideologies. This investigation uses testimony to explore epistemic injustice as it relates to the author’s experience of living with endometriosis and the pursuit of professional licensure. Considering the limited amount of research on the condition, along with the perceived absence of literature within the field of dance/ movement therapy, further study is warranted. The experimentation phase of this research incorporated the use …

Inclusive Pedagogy: Connecting Disability And Race In Higher Education, Meredith Persin

All Theses

Higher education was never made for marginalized people. The academy was created based on the privileged white, able-bodied, males who preoccupied higher education for the longest time. While that has certainly changed over the years, the institution itself is still in the past resulting in BIPOC students and disabled students continuing to struggle within higher education. While instructors have begun to take interest in the need for inclusive pedagogy within the last decade, it still has a far way to come in order to help the marginalized students with intersecting identities and students who may not benefit from a one …

Committed To The Fragment: Feminist Literature And The Promise Of Wellness, Lynne Beckenstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“I have never been able to blind myself” to the cruelty of a world that “destroys its own young in passing…out of not noticing or caring about the destruction,” Audre Lorde tells us in her 1980 “mythobiography” Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. This quality, Lorde says, “according to one popular definition of mental health, makes me mentally unhealthy.” In rejecting psychological self-possession as a sign of wellness, this passage also rejects it as one of sovereignty’s conditions. At the time of Lorde’s writing, this version of sovereignty already dominated the landscape of therapeutic culture in the United States, …

Facultas Marginem: Assessing Disability Data And Public Aau Universities’ Affirmative Action Plans For Systemic Barriers Facing Faculty With Disabilities, Joseph Carlton Barry

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation contributes to education equity scholarship produced by academics seeking to develop understandings of disability, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and how both are situated amongst faculty in institutions of higher education. As such, this dissertation centers on a study of public US universities belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). This study looks for institutional level associations between respective rates by which college and university faculty with disabilities (FWD) are employed, certain aspects of disability policy drawn from each institution’s 2020 Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and various other instances of empirical disability data (EDD).

While this study contributes …

Are Hispanics Less Likely To Receive Vocational Rehabilitation Services?, Alberto Migliore, John Shepard

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

In the US, 16% of people with cognitive disabilities self-report to be of Hispanic ethnicity (US Census Bureau, FY 2020). However, among people with intellectual disabilities who received vocational rehabilitation services, only 11% (-5%) are Hispanic (N = 32,823, RSA911, FY2020).

She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power: An Intersectional Analysis Of A Modern Reboot, Laine Marshall

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Children’s animation offers the viewer a unique window into the nuances of current societal norms. Because children’s animation is made for the young, sensitive, and impressionable, it is carefully controlled and often heavily censored. Any statements made regarding the protagonist’s heroism or the villain’s malignity are meant to be accepted as universal truths for the growing minds of our youth. The recent 2018 Netflix and DreamWorks Animation animated reboot of the classic 1980's series "She-Ra: Princess of Power," now titled "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power," shook the animation industry with its groundbreaking representation and astounding visuals. Following its predecessor’s …

Discipline Disproportionality Of Black Students With Disabilities: Principals' Perspectives, Wanda L. Van Dyke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of practice found in discipline disproportionality of Black students with disabilities in an urban school district with a majority Black student and teacher population. Through personal interviews with building level administrators, data was gained to determine common themes that impact discipline disproportionality of Black students with disabilities. A qualitative inquiry approach, in the form of a case study was used to determine principals’ perspectives about factors that may impact discipline disproportionality. Student disciplinary records were examined to verify disproportionality and investigate patterns and categories related to students with and without …

University Staff: Indigenous Sovereignty And Justice Online, Star Berry

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

United States (U.S.) public research universities generally deliver problematic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts that erase Indigenous, Transgender, and Disabled staff through online formats and representations. This qualitative explanatory study describes the DEI common language as one of compliance, erasure, and management through a review of 17 high and very high research universities as defined by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education®. Of these universities, seven are also land grant universities. The frameworks applied include Indigenous Feminist Theory (Waterman, 2018) and Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991). The results from this review demonstrate universities’ differing institutional commitments to Indigenous, Transgender, …

Black Identity Development In Deaf Individuals, Faith Sanders

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The development of a positive relationship with one’s intersectional identity is influenced heavily by environmental factors. Black deaf students have birthright connections to both the Black and deaf communities which needs to be fostered appropriately. This study examines the impact of hearing mainstream and residential deaf schools on Black deaf students identity development. Mainstream environments typically have small, if any, concentrations of deaf students, reducing the likelihood of having interactions with the deaf community. Residential deaf schools, on the other hand, have high concentrations of deaf students and provide opportunities for growth within that community. Data shows that students in …

Mad Violence, White Victims, And Other Gun Violence Fictions: The Gap Between School Shootings And Systemic Gun Violence, Hayley C. Stefan

Research on Diversity in Youth Literature

No abstract provided.

Legislating Social Inclusion: Social Interaction And Perceptions Of Middle Level Students Toward Those With Disabilities, Deidre Necol Whitehead

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recognition of the need for students with disabilities to receive free and appropriate education was brought to the forefront with the passage of Public Law 93 – 112, Rehabilitation Act in 1973. In 1975 Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was enacted requiring all schools to develop and provide a free, appropriate public education for all children and youth with disabilities in the regular classroom to ensure an appropriate education. However, mandating inclusion in classrooms does not ensure social interaction, which is an integral part of learning, especially for early adolescents.

This dissertation uses the Chedoke-McMaster …

I, Too, Sing Neurodiversity, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

The neurodiversity community was envisioned as an inclusive and welcoming space for individuals with neurological conditions such as ADHD, autism, Tourette’s Syndrome, giftedness, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, intellectual disability, NVLD and related diagnoses. The underlying premise of neurodiversity is that people present with various neurological differences and there is value in acknowledging and accepting these differences. Despite efforts made over the past few decades, a growing number of individuals within the neurodiversity community, including people of color, have called for intersectional concepts to be more intentionally and more effectively interwoven into neurodiversity as a whole. Referencing “I, Too,” a decades-old poem …

Human Supremacy As Posthuman Risk, Daniel Estrada

The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique

Human supremacy is the widely held view that human interests ought to be privileged over other interests as a matter of ethics and public policy. Posthumanism is the historical situation characterized by a critical reevaluation of anthropocentrist theory and practice. This paper draws on animal studies, critical posthumanism, and the critique of ideal theory in Charles Mills and Serene Khader to address the appeal to human supremacist rhetoric in AI ethics and policy discussions, particularly in the work of Joanna Bryson. This analysis identifies a specific risk posed by human supremacist policy in a posthuman context, namely the classification of …

Black Asl (American Sign Language), Katrina Thulin

Sociology Student Work Collection

Presentation about Black ASL (American Sign Language) including it's origin, evolution, current study, and differences between mainstream ASL and Black ASL.

Tracing Biometric Assemblages In India’S Surveillance State: Reproducing Colonial Logics, Reifying Caste Purity, And Quelling Dissent Through Aadhaar, Priya Prabhakar

Scripps Senior Theses

Tracing Biometric Assemblages in India’s Surveillance State seeks to understand the historical conditions that rendered the nation-state of India as having the world’s largest biometric surveillance system: Aadhaar. Surveillance practices used by the British Raj mirrors the current social order of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as they use surveillance to similar ends in today’s political economy, through the intersecting forces of neoliberalism and ethnonationalism. This thesis is an exploration into how India’s current surveillance regimes cultivate biometric surveillant assemblages through Aadhaar. Contrary to claims that Aadhaar was created to empower the poor, I argue that these surveillance regimes …

Truffaut’S L’Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child, 1970): Evoking Autism And The Nascent “Eugenic Atlantic”, Joy C. Schaefer

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This essay analyzes François Truffaut’s L’Enfant sauvage (The Wild Child, 1970) as an early representation of autism that metaphorizes the neurodiverse child as the colonial subject. The film takes place in 1798, only a decade after the French Revolution, and depicts the true events of the “wild boy of Aveyron,” a feral child found in the Southern French forest when he was twelve years old. Before the film’s production, Truffaut—who also plays the boy’s teacher, Dr. Jean-Marc Itard—collected articles and books on autism and viewed videos of autistic children to create his main character’s behavioral patterns. The film …

Disability And Migration: How Systems Of Violence Intersect With The Production And Experience Of Disability For Migrants In Morocco, Frances Condon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project investigates the perspectives and experiences of physically disabled, chronically ill, or bodily-impaired migrants from south of the Sahara living in Rabat, Morocco. Increasing interest in disabled migrants’ rights from international organizations risks erasing those being ‘protected’ if it does not attend to the intersections of race, class, citizenship, and gender as they relate to the production and experience of disability for migrants. Produced by and for the (white) global North, I argue that traditional Euro-American disability studies scholarship is ill-equipped to address the issues faced by disabled migrants in post-colonial contexts. In addition to being ineffective, the uncritical …

Dmt And “The Man Box:” Provoking Change And Encouraging Authentic Living, An Arts-Based Project, Steven Reynolds

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the mind-body experience through an arts-based research approach to examine, and redefine the emotional capacity and usefulness of males through societal determinants that limits and hinders men from living their authentic selves. Through the lens of a metaphoric “Man Box” 112 men participated in a workshop recreating their personal narratives of socialization through, style of dress, coping mechanisms, belief systems and who they should be as men through society's standards. In the “Man Box,” male bonding, and emotional feelings are discouraged, while the objectification of women, material property and physical/emotional strength are encouraged. This research investigates the …

Toward Culturally Competent Archival (Re)Description Of Marginalized Histories, Annie Tang, Dorothy Berry, Kelly Bolding, Rachel E. Winston

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Influenced by the radical archives movement, panelists discuss their (re)processing projects for which they wrote or rewrote descriptions in culturally competent approaches. Their case studies include materials regarding underrepresented peoples and historically oppressed groups who are marginalized from or maligned in the archival record. Targeted to processors, this session aims to teach participants to apply their cultural competencies in writing finding aids through an introduction to cultural competency framework, the case study examples, and a short audience-participation exercise.

Intersectional Experiences: White And Black Deaf Lesbians In Metro Dc 1980 - 2000, Paige E. Watson

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This study looks at the experiences of two groups with intersecting identities: white and Black Deaf lesbians who lived in Washington, DC from the 1980s to the early 2000s, a transformative period for lesbians. During the 1980s, the larger LGBT community united as one to push for recognition. The 1990s brought the lesbian feminist movement, and with it attention towards classism and sexism within the LGBT movement. During this period, the focus of the lesbian community shifted from a white and middle-class movement to a more inclusive one. However, even with this attention and the eventual fracturing of the LGBT …