Disability Studies Commons^™

Peers Social Skills Intervention For Adopted Teens, Ava Schneider, Francie Bailey, Emily Helder

Summer Research

The Program for Enrichment and Education of Relational Skills (PEERS) is a social skills intervention program originally developed for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to learn and practice social behaviors. We thought this intervention may be beneficial to adolescent adoptees as some experience social skill development delays and others display quasi-autistic behaviors due to some degree of socio-emotional neglect in their earlier years (Tan, Liu & Smith, 2020). Parents and teens met once a week in separate groups for 90-minute sessions over the course of 16 weeks. Parents and adolescents were split into groups where they discussed topics related …

Daily Devotions For The Deaf, January-December 2020

Daily Devotions for the Deaf

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Council Bluffs, IA

Daily Devotions for the Deaf Finding Aid

The Casc Framework: An Assessment Model For Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Laurel A. Snider

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School psychologists pay a critical role in providing assessment and intervention services within the realm of special education. Within this role, they are highly likely to interact with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Students with IDD are characterized by significantly lower than average cognitive and daily living skills that may be comorbid with difficulties with communication, social skills, or other domains. With these differences in mind, dominant assessment practices have been criticized as lacking social and empirical validity when applied to this population. Although students with IDD frequently undergo evaluations, they continue to face significantly poorer post-school outcomes …

The Effects Of Dance On People With Disabilities, Heidi Po

Honors Program Theses

Dance can be used as therapy and fun for those in the disability community. A quarter of adult Americans live with some form of disability, but there are not many dance programs that include them. This paper looks at an inclusive dance studio in Orlando, FL that serves children and adults and analyzes the benefits gained from participating in an inclusive dance program. To study this, parents of students and paraprofessionals who work with Chance 2 Dance, whether Chance 2 Dance comes to their organization or they recommended students to the studio, were interviewed. These interviews were analyzed thematically. A …

Visionary Politics And Methods In Feminist Disability Studies, Jess Waggoner, Ashley Mog

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

In this introduction we explore the genealogies and methodologies of feminist disability studies (FDS). A feminist methodology is politically situated with a focus on the material conditions and social and cultural structures that marginalized people bear, experience, and resist. Methods, and the theories that underpin and create those methodological tools, can open or foreclose possibilities for praxis. Considering theory and method as mutually informative intellectual projects, we ask, how can our methods influence political investments that open up visionary possibilities and plans? How can we take a coalitional approach to disability politics as a method that is informed by collaboration, …

Factors Associated With Incarceration Of Adolescents With Learning Disabilities, Sabine Silien Charles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Incarceration of adolescents in the United States has grown substantially during the last 3 decades with nearly 53,000 adolescents held every day in correctional facilities. Many researchers have raised concerns about the greater percentage of adolescents with learning disabilities (LDs) in the juvenile system. In the state of Washington, one study in residential placements showed approximately 20% of youth incarcerated had a diagnosed LD. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to use the therapeutic change, length of stay, and recidivism in incarcerated juvenile offenders in Washington state, 2008–2015 data set to examine possible factors associated with incarceration of …

Understanding Communication Dynamics In Group Home Setting, Jacinta O. Anyanwu

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Purpose: Limited research has examined the communicative interaction patterns within group home settings between adults with developmental disabilities and their non-disabled direct care staff. There is evidence from studies that improving the communication pattern of caregivers will eventually lead to better interaction with residents. An approach that might clarify this issue is to have direct care staff who currently work in group homes describe their interaction with their residents. This study evaluated the communication pattern of direct care staff and their residents in group home settings by looking at the types of instructions that direct care staff use on a …

Examining Communication Patterns And Identity In Families With Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Amber L. Alvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Deafness in the context of the hearing family attacks the backbone of the family structure, namely communication” (Ahlert & Greeff, 2012, p. 402). There is a link between communication and identity, specifically the role of communication on identity (Jung & Hecht, 2004). The purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing by investigating the relationship between family communication patterns and identity. In this study, I conducted in-depth interviews with the parents of children who are hard of hearing to investigate family communication patterns and identity. Using Family …

Bruchlinien Der Inklusion, Justin A. Haegele, Martin Giese, Wesley J. Wilson, Felix Oldörp

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This paper will call for action in one space that is commonly among the first to act as a testing ground for integrated education, physical education. The purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to provide a brief review of research examining integrated physical education from the viewpoints of those with disabilities and (2) to provide several points of reference for future research in this area of inquiry. In addressing these purposes, we first present a review of scholarship salient to the subjective experiences of students with disabilities in integrated physical education. Then, to illustrate and extend this research, an …

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 …

Comparing Parent-Report And Performance-Based Measures Of Vestibular Processing, Elisha D. Chambers

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Comparing Parent-report and Performance-based Measures of Vestibular Processing

By Elisha Chambers, MS. OTR/L

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2020

Major Director: Stacey Reynolds, Ph.D OTR/L

Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy

In the field of occupational therapy, there is a need to explore the relationship between performance based-measures and parent-report measures of vestibular functioning because thorough assessment sets the foundation for effective intervention. Time constraints, child distractibility, and limited participation are all issues that pediatric occupational therapists face during evaluations. It …

An Extension Of Social Justice : A Rawlsian Application Of Justice For The Intellectually Disabled, Jennifer Christina Tillman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I add to the literature in the following way. First, I review the existing criticisms of Rawls’s theory of justice, which claims that he is unable to address the question of justice for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Second, I explain how Rawls’s idea of reciprocity can accommodate some forms of disability but not the more severe cases. Third, I develop an account of a right to political identity that can provide an extension of Rawls’s theory to address the more severe cases of disability. From these steps, I will suggest that these changes will allow us to …

Making Good : World War I, Disability, And The Senses In American Rehabilitation, Evan Patrick Sullivan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study looks at how disabled American soldier-patients and the US Army used the senses as tools of rehabilitation after the Great War. Contemporaries argued that, when the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers came home wounded or sick after the Great War, the men needed to make good. The phrase “making good” meant that sacrifice in the war was not enough, and veterans had to become socially and economically independent, and return to heterosexual relationships. In an effort to return to normalcy, the US Army relied on rehabilitation, which aimed to medically and socially re-integrate the men into society.

Access To Accommodating Housing In An Era Of Fair Housing : Disability Status And Housing Outcomes, Kaya Hamer-Small

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

According to the U.S. Census, an estimated 56.7 million (19%) of U.S. citizens had a disability in 2010. In 2015, one out of every five adults had a disability with projections showing that by 2050, the disabled population is expected to comprise 27.1% of the non-institutionalized population. This study aimed to better understand housing accessibility by evaluating the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) and evaluating the availability of accessible housing for people with disabilities to meet their housing needs. The FHAA was the first policy that made provisions to protect the private housing rights of people with disabilities and …

Book Review Essay: Invisibility, Inclusivity & Fraternity: Was Yosef On The Spectrum? Understanding Joseph Through Torah, Midrash And Classical Jewish Sources (Samuel J. Levine, Urim Publications (2019)), Stephen A. Rosenbaum

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

From The Field: Strategies On Career Development And Employment For Students With Intellectual Disability., Daria Domin

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This practical guide includes strategies that work to support students with intellectual disability (ID) who are looking for employment opportunities. The strategies shared in this publication were shared with the authors by staff and faculty at six different post-secondary programs for students with ID, and align with the Think College Standards for Inclusive Higher Education; a chart is included to show the alignment.

Using Data-Enabled Performance Feedback And Guidance To Assist Employment Consultants In Their Work With Job Seekers: An Experimental Study, John Butterworth, Alberto Migliore, Kelly Nye-Lengerman, Oliver Lyons, Amy Gunty, Jill Eastman, Paul Foos

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

BACKGROUND:The success of job seekers with disabilities in achieving their employment goals depends in large part on the quality of employment supports that they receive from employment consultants. OBJECTIVE:To test the effectiveness of data-enabled performance feedback to assist employment consultants in implementing standards of effective employment supports. METHODS:A total of 187 employment consultants in 30 states were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The intervention group received data-enabled performance feedback and guidance for 12 months, whereas the control group continued with business as usual. Both groups completed baseline and quarterly surveys throughout the intervention. RESULTS:One year after baseline, the …

From Active Duty To Agriculture: Engaging Veterans In Farming And Gardening, Daria Domin

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Second in a series of Innovative AT Practices briefs, From Active Duty to Agriculture: Engaging Veterans in Farming and Gardening describes a long standing initiative by the Kansas Assistive Technology Program that aids veterans and active duty soldiers transitioning into civilian life by providing them with opportunities in agriculture.

New Law Helps Ensure Assistive Technology For Students Who Need It, Daria Domin, John Shepard

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Fourth in a series of Innovative AT Practices briefs, New Law Helps Ensure Assistive Technology for Students Who Need It describes the legislative advocacy work conducted by the Illinois Assistive Technology Program to help pass a bill in the Illinois state legislature that mandates assistive technology to be considered as part of every individualized education plan (IEP) meeting.

The Limits Of Inclusion: Teacher Beliefs And Experience With Inclusion Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Allegra Johnson

LMU Theses and Dissertations

General education teachers are critical contributors to the successful inclusion of students labeled with learning disabilities in general education classrooms. Similarly, teacher beliefs about disability labels significantly influence how teachers include or exclude students labeled with a learning disability in their classrooms. This qualitative study investigated eight secondary general education teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and their experiences teaching students labeled with a learning disability from a Critical Disabilities Studies perspective. Data were collected using an innovative qualitative method, Q methodology, in order to surface distinct perspectives within the group about inclusion and the experience of teaching students labeled with a …

Newsletter Catholic Deaf Of Detroit, January 2020

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Detroit, MI

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit Finding Aid

Destigmatizing Disability In The Law Of Immigration Admissions, Medha D. Makhlouf

Faculty Contributions to Books

In U.S. immigration law, disability has historically been associated with deviance, and has served as the basis for legal barriers to entry and eventual citizenship. For example, immigrants with actual and perceived physical and intellectual disabilities, mental illness, and other health conditions have been deemed “inadmissible” to the United States based on the belief that they are likely to become dependent on the government for support. Although the law has evolved to accommodate immigrants with disabilities in some ways, significant legal barriers still exist on account of the widespread, persistent characterization of disability as a “bad difference” from the norm. …

Strategies For Hiring People With Disabilities To Prevent A Skilled Worker Shortage, Andreas Kyprianou

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many business sectors are currently facing challenges in the labor market and will need to address inefficiencies in their recruitment and retention strategies. Restaurant managers who lack strategies for recruiting nontraditional staff, such as people with disabilities, risk declining competitiveness because of this labor shortage. Grounded in stakeholder theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies restaurant managers use to recruit and hire people with disabilities to prevent or address skilled worker shortages. The participants comprised 7 quick service restaurant (QSR) franchisees and managers from the same QSR brand in Canada with previous experience recruiting staff …

The Experience Of Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder In The Workplace, Josephine Laverne Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with children for many decades, but it can continue into adulthood. However, little research has focused on adults with ADHD or the specific processes through which such adults mitigate the challenges they face, especially in the workplace. The purpose of this qualitative, grounded theory study was to provide a better understanding of the strategies and support systems adults with ADHD use to overcome workplace challenges. Self-efficacy theory grounded the study, allowing for an understanding of the lived experiences of adults with ADHD in the workplace. The researcher conducted 12 semistructured interviews with adults with …

Imaginative Empathies: Exploring The Role Of Creative Writing In Developing Social Skills Of College Students With Autism, Rebekkah N. Richner

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Only one-third of students with autism who are enrolled in American universities go on to graduate (Cox & Williams, 2018; Newman et al., 2011; Wei et al., 2014). These students may be currently underserved by the writing curriculum of postsecondary institutions when it comes to facilitating social and personal development in college and beyond. This thesis begins with the hypothesis that creative writing classes already utilize pedagogical tools that could aid students with autism in strengthening their social skills, particularly through the more structured social environment of the creative writing workshop. This study examined a 200-level short story creative writing …

Vulvodynia, It’S In My Head: Mad Methods Toward Crip Coalition, Renee Dumaresque

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This article employs a mad transdisciplinary approach to autoethnography to detail vulvodynia — or chronic vulvar pain — within the system of (dis)ability. Through autoethnography, the self operates as a mobile orientation from which to identify and disrupt the colonial rationalities that differentially construct and narrate vulvodynia across sites of madness and disability. Through historical, discursive, and autoethnographic analysis, I locate vulvodynia’s role in various processes of subject, race, and settler-state formation from the nineteenth century up to the neoliberal present.

A Review Of The Evidence Supporting Play-Based Learning For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Josh Wilson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has become more prevalent through more diagnosis, with about 1 in 54 being diagnosed with ASD (Center for Disease Control, 2016). With more children being diagnosed with ASD, more services are needed. Adapted Physical Education (APE) is a direct service provided for children with disabilities, and APE teachers should use proven methods to effectively and efficiently assist these children in their area of need. Play-based learning has proven to help improve many social, communication, social skill engagement and play behaviors in children with ASD so play-based learning should be utilized more within the context of APE …

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting In Autism Spectrum: Combining Narrative Experience With Clinical Research To Explore Stress-Induced, Transitory Retrograde Amnesia, Elizabeth Willsmore-Finkle

Scripps Senior Theses

Currently, psychological research explores autism, a blanket term for a range of neurobiological and developmental differences, through a clinical, as opposed to an experiential, lens. Autism has only existed as formal diagnosis under that name since 1943 (Kanner); however, the advocacy of activists such as Temple Grandin, a slaughterhouse systems designer best known for documenting her life with autism in a series of autobiographic accounts, has begun to legitimize the incorporation of emic experiences of autism within clinical research. Researcher Dermot Bowler and colleagues (2011) have conducted extensive reviews of memory distinctions in autism, finding differences of varying degrees across …

Social And Ecological Determinants Of Physical Activity For Youth With Cerebral Palsy, George E. Gorton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Physical inactivity is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, increasing risk for noncommunicable disease and compromised physical, social, and mental health. However, fewer than 20% of U.S. youth meet physical activity guidelines; youth with disabilities are even less active. Physical activity is influenced by personal, family, social, organizational, community, and environmental factors acting within a social-ecological framework. To what extent is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which social and ecological factors are associated with participation of youth with cerebral palsy in physical activity. The research design was a cross-sectional, quantitative …

Meeting The Needs Of College Students With Learning Disabilities, Rita Garrett Foster

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although more students with learning disabilities (LDs) are attending postsecondary institutions, faculty lacks the necessary training to educate students with LDs. A need exists to ensure that their college experiences include resources or support services to help students meet their academic requirements. Without support services, students may encounter poor outcomes in postsecondary education. This bounded, qualitative case study was designed to explore perspectives and experiences of students with LDs related to student services and accommodations at a postsecondary institution. Knowles's theory of andragogy formed the study's conceptual framework. A purposeful sample of 6 students, who were medically diagnosed as having …