Disability Studies Commons^™

Starting With Story, Not Symptom: Narrative Collapse And Cultural Repair In Appalachia, Wayne Coombs Ph.D.

Journal of Appalachian Health

Appalachia’s opioid crisis reflects uneven burdens, especially in distressed coalfield counties, and it cannot be solved by symptom tracking alone. This commentary argues for a narrative shift, starting with story and cultural repair alongside clinical care. Narrative collapse is defined here as the loss of shared, dependable public meaning across groups, not the absence of storytelling in families, churches, and recovery circles. Trauma science suggests that chronic threat reshapes nervous systems across generations, making safety a prerequisite for renewed trust. Drawing on narrative identity research, the piece proposes peer story work as infrastructure that can reduce shame, support treatment engagement, …

Visual Genealogies Of Disability In Mexican Visual Culture, Daniela Calvache Garcia

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

Disability in Mexico is a visually constructed category, shaped by a long genealogy of representation in which images of bodily difference actively participate in defining power and the management of all bodies. The discursive forces that define disability as unproductivity reduce body-minds to the service of the economic system, affecting our relationship with death, illness, reproduction, size, youth, and beauty. Across the Mesoamerican visual space, such representations have long unsettled dominant systems of truth about bodies. This dissertation examines how conceptions of disability are produced, negotiated, and reimagined through three historical moments and cultural expressions: Pre-Hispanic Mayan imagery, Mexican colonial …

Navigating Mental Wellness: A Peer-Led Journey Into Adult Services, Kristin G. Haberek

DSW Capstone Projects

Students with severe emotional disturbances (SED) occupy one of the most underserved intersections in American education and mental health care. As they age out of children’s services, they face abrupt service discontinuation, disrupted therapeutic relationships, and adult systems ill-equipped to meet their needs. These vulnerabilities, including heightened risks of crisis, hospitalization, homelessness, and justice involvement, constitute a central practice problem. This capstone addresses these transitions across three scholarly products: a systematic literature review, a theoretical concept paper, and a practical application paper, tracing a unified arc from diagnosing structural failures to proposing an evidence-informed, equity-oriented clinical response. Synthesizing key findings …

Introducing Neuro Social Work: A Brief Reflection On Neuroscience And The Profession, Priscila Llamosa

Social Work Faculty Publications

Neuroscience offers language and evidence that can strengthen interdisciplinary communication, support advocacy in biomedically dominated settings, and validate relational practices long recognized in social work, including the impacts of early adversity, attachment, and healing through connection. At the same time, an epistemological tension underlies the profession’s unease with neuroscience when brain-based narratives are used to individualize structural harm or justify surveillance of marginalized families and communities. This teaching note introduces Neuro Social Work as a justice-oriented specialization that integrates contemporary neuroscience with social work’s person-in-environment commitments, relational practice traditions, and anti-oppressive ethics.The author argues that the key question is no …

Introducing Neuro Sscial Work: A Brief Reflection On Neuroscience And The Profession, Priscila Llamosa

Social Work Faculty Publications

This reflection introduces and contextualizes the term Neuro Social Work, which I coin to name a specialized practice area at the intersection of social work, neuroscience, and neurodiversity. Drawing on my experience as a social work educator and practitioner, I discuss social work’s uneasy relationship with neuroscience, marked both by the opportunity to deepen our understanding of trauma, development, and healing, and by the risks of using brain‑based evidence to individualize structural harms or justify surveillance of marginalized communities. I outline, in broad strokes, what distinguishes Neuro Social Work from general neuroscience‑informed practice. The note is intended as a concept …

Professional Experiences Of Disabled Music Therapists: An Adapted Multiple Case Study, August Lily Tuggle

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Literature about disability often focuses on disabled people as recipients of professional services and there is scant literature about disabled professionals. Although music therapists work primarily with disabled individuals, there is little research on or from the perspectives of disabled music therapists. A growing body of qualitative research, grey literature, and media platforms provides perspectives from the disability community regarding music therapy. Disabled individuals both within and outside the profession critique common music therapy attitudes and practices that conflict with the expressed needs of the disability community. However, much of this literature contains the perspectives of one individual or a …

How Do Couples Of Autistic Children Perceive Their Quality Of Life? A Case Study Featuring Sequential Mixed Methodology, Amanda Duncan Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Families who have autistic children report significantly lower quality of life indicators than neurotypical families and those with other developmental disabilities (Bitsika & Sharpley, 2004; Brown et al., 2006; Charnsil & Bathia, 2010; De Sousa, 2010; Merkaj et al., 2013). However, the reports fluctuate between family members as mothers report more mental health challenges than fathers, including stress, anxiety, and depression (Dabrowska & Pstiula, 2010; Hodapp et al., 2003; Merkaj et al., 2013). Yet, these findings are based on the limited research that has been done on fathers and couples (Cheuk & Lashewicz, 2015; Osborne & Reed, 2008; Papageorgiou & …

Exploring The Therapeutic Relationship In Mental Health Therapy With Queer And Disabled Adults, Rachel Womack

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Queerness and disability have been shown to be intimately connected, with members of the LGBTQIA+ community significantly more likely to identify as disabled compared to the general population. Though there are roughly 3-5 million queer and disabled individuals living in the United States, this remains a multiply marginalized and understudied population. Owing partially to stigma, minority stress, and discrimination, these individuals face an increased risk of a variety of mental health problems including depression, anxiety, self-harm, PTSD, and suicidality. Additionally, several barriers to mental health treatment exist, including inaccessible services, lack of provider knowledge, and outright discrimination from providers. Though …

Child Language And Happiness Behaviors: Evaluating The Effects Of Caregiver Coaching, Ashlen Grubbs

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Caregivers of young children who have or are at risk for disabilities may struggle supporting their child’s language development. This study used a tailored rapid coaching intervention to teach a caregiver different naturalistic language interventions that can be used with their child during play. Evidence-based naturalistic skills for increasing child communication were chosen to teach the caregiver based on baseline levels of skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a tailored RCI (training and coaching) with caregivers of children with developmental disabilities. Like other studies, this study involved evaluating child-level communication but extended child measures …

Pixels Or People: A Comparison Of The Differenital Effects Of Animated And Human Video Models On Exercise Behaviors For Hgh School Students With Intellectual Disability, Jade Alexis Fulkerson

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Individuals with intellectual disabilities, with or without autism spectrum disorder, often require structured programming to facilitate acquisition of skills. Video modeling, an evidence-based strategy, offers a promising avenue for skill instruction. While research has demonstrated the effectiveness of human-modeled video interventions, limited research has been conducted into the efficacy of animated models. Addressing this gap, the present study employed an alternating treatments design to compare the effectiveness of human and animated models in teaching exercise behaviors to high school students with intellectual disabilities, with or without autism spectrum disorder. Results revealed variability among participants: one individual exhibited superior performance with …

Evaluating The Differential Effects Of Using A Technology-Based Antecedent Intervention In Comparison To A Technology-Based Treatment Package, Rachel Fosnaught

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This study investigated the differential effects of using non-contingent reinforcement in the form of attention as an antecedent intervention in comparison to using non-contingent reinforcement in addition to self-monitoring as a treatment package. A multi treatment single case research design was utilized in this study. Levels of student’s on-task behavior were measured to evaluate the differential effects of an antecedent intervention in comparison to the combination of an antecedent and consequent intervention. This study also only used treatments that were technologically delivered to the participants.

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 …

The Lived Supervision Experiences Of Disabled Music Therapists, Emma Martin

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Within and outside of the music therapy field, there has been a recent push for more conversations and literature on social justice. However, disability has been largely left out of this dialogue. Disabled individuals have unique worldviews, and their voices as individuals and practitioners should be an integral part of social justice within music therapy. This study examined disabled music therapists' supervision experiences. All music therapists receive supervision during their education and clinical training, and many go on to supervise. Supervision therefore presents an opportunity to advance the profession by striving to understand disabled music therapists’ perspectives. The purpose of …

Good Trouble: Disrupting The Disproportionality Of Black Boys In Special Education Due To Misdiagnosed And Unaddressed Trauma, Montrell Pryor

DSW Capstone Projects

Black boys experience a myriad of trauma as they navigate through society under the gaze of white patriarchy and archetypes. Whether engaging in trauma or witnessing it, it impacts Black boys tremendously, particularly in the educational setting. What typically looks like misbehavior in the classroom can be symptoms of unaddressed and untreated trauma that have been triggered and exacerbated in the school setting. As a result, this phenomenon contributes to the disproportionality of Black boys in special education and adds to the expansion of the school-to-prison pipeline.

This capstone provides a thorough examination of the literature in the form of …

Rehabilitation Counseling Perceptions And Psychosocial Stressors Of Arab-Immigrant Caregivers Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Maram Alfulayyih

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This research study provides important insights on the psychosocial stressors faced by U.S. Arab immigrants when raising a child with ASD, their perceptions of rehabilitation counseling, and the implications of rehabilitation counseling practice based on gender, age, education, and race. More specifically, this study has provided a detailed literature review as well as new insights into the challenges faced by the caregivers and recommendations that rehabilitation counselors should consider when helping these families overcome psychosocial issues and adjust to their circumstances. Using the DASS-21 questionnaire and a multi-factor analysis, it has identified specific groups of caregivers that may need help …

Caregivers Of Parents With Alzheimer’S Disease: Quality Of Life For Caregivers: Perspectives & Family Dynamics, Matthew Cornu

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This study furthers Alzheimer’s family literature regarding the impact of caregiver attachment, readiness to provide care, and caregiver quality of life. A sample of 33 participants caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s disease in the state of Kentucky was recruited to complete a questionnaire for the study. The questionnaire consisted of an online survey about participants’ experiences and attachments growing up with their parents, their experiences becoming caregivers to their parents with Alzheimer’s disease, and participants’ current perspectives of their own quality of life. Positive perspectives in regards to quality of life among caregivers seem to be a predictor of …

Navigating The Michelle P. Waiver: A Narrative Examination Of The Impact Of Parent Caregiver-Related Uncertainty And Decision Making For Children With Disabilities, Whittney H. Darnell

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The Michelle P. Waiver (MPW) is the primary means of health insurance for more than 10,000 people in the state of Kentucky. The waiver is especially popular among families with young children with disabilities because it is robust in its benefit offerings and also one of the few Medicaid resources that does not include parental income as a qualifying factor in eligibility. Through the waiver, children receive a medical card as well as additional coverage for medical expenses that fall beyond the scope of traditional health insurance. For these young children to gain access to the comprehensive offerings of the …

An Exploration Of Law Enforcement Officers’ Training Experiences, Training Needs, And Interactions Related To Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kirsten Scheil Railey

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Although research confirms the effectiveness of training to improve law enforcement officers’ awareness and knowledge of people with intellectual disability, learning disabilities, and mental health disorders (Bailey, Barr, & Bunting, 2001; McAllister, Bailey, & Barr, 2002; Scantlebury et al., 2017; Wood & Watson, 2017), research related to the efficacy of autism-specific law enforcement training is limited. In order to provide up-to-date information regarding training for LEOs related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a systematic review of the literature was conducted for the first study. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Protocols 2015 (PRISMA), a …

Living With Traumatic Brain Injury In A Rural Setting: Supports And Barriers Across The Continuum Of Care, Anne L. Harrison, Elizabeth G. Hunter, Heather Thomas, Paige Bordy, Erin Stokes, Patrick H. Kitzman

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is prevalent in Kentucky and comes with a high cost in care and quality of life for individuals and caregivers affected. Many people living with the condition of TBI have unmet needs. Research among people living with TBI in rural areas is limited. The purposes of this study were to (1) increase understanding of the lived experience of people with TBI and caregivers in rural regions of Kentucky across the continuum of their care and (2) provide their perspectives on barriers and facilitators of optimal function and well-being.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive interview study was …