Disability Studies Commons^™

An Appreciative Inquiry Of Community Based Disability Sports And Physical Activity Provision To Guide Future Development, Jennifer O Carroll Reidy

Theses

In 2008, the Irish Sports Inclusion Disability Programme (SIDP) was established to provide opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in a variety of sports and physical activity. Regular monitoring has been sporadic and disparate (Sport Ireland, 2016). Using the four-stage method of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider, 1987), a series of interviews was undertaken with providers of the SIDP. Fourteen Coordinators, SIDOs and sports development workers were interviewed about the strengths, impacts and future for the SIDP. Six participants of the programmes also took part in a focus group concerning their perspectives of the current state and future potential for the …

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.

Exploring The Experiences Of Runners With Visual Impairments And Sighted Guides, Lindsay E. Ball, Lauren J. Leiberman, Pamela Beach, Melanie Perreault, Jason Rich

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

: Running is a popular sport, and, with simple modifications, it can be accessible for individuals with visual impairments, particularly with a sighted running guide. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of runners with visual impairments and sighted running guides. Adopting a descriptive qualitative approach to guide data collection analysis and interpretation, seven runners with visual impairments and four sighted running guides were recruited and interviewed. The analysis identified four major themes: (1) benefits, (2) barriers, (3) advocacy, and (4) communication. The identified themes illustrate the influence of participation in running on the health and relationships …

Struggles And Successes In Accessing Art, Theodore J. Szpakowski

Student Publications

According to the 2021 American Community Survey, 13% of Americans self-reported being disabled. That is over 42 million people. Many of have the same interest in attending art museums and galleries as non-disabled Americans, but face additional barriers. It is critical for art museums and galleries to recognize these barriers and take steps to reduce them. Several large art museums have begun innovative programs that can provide an example of what an art space with the time, staffing, and resources can achieve. Although accessibility requires a plethora of considerations to be done properly, museums and galleries have shown incredible progress …

The Experiences Of Sexually Abused Women With Disabilities Who Consulted Services In Zimbabwe: The Intersection Of Disability, Gender, And Poverty, Tafadzwa Oswell Rugoho, Michael Ashley Stein, Pamela Wright, Jacqueline E. W. Broerse

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Women have experienced sexual abuse, and very few of them report to the police or seek other services, such as medical attention. This study aims to gain insight into the barriers women with disabilities face when accessing police, health, and counseling services after experiencing sexual abuse. Barriers such as long distances, physical barriers at service sites, communication barriers, gender issues, lack of confidence in the service providers, and an overall lack of resources were reported. In a study undertaken in Zimbabwe, women with disabilities encountered intersecting barriers such as the intersection of disability, and gender, poverty, unemployment, and low levels …

Chronic Poetics: A Waiting Room Of One's Own, Madeleine Simmons

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This article explores chronic poetics, through my personal lens I take readers on a walk- through of poetry and the discussions surrounding chronic illnesses. I examine the current state of chronic illness and the nuances to its discussion. I analyze chronic illness in the context of disability studies, and touch on the tensions of categorizing chronic illness as a disability. As well as how to best navigate reading chronic poetics, as poets engage in new territories as they form a new language to describe their circumstances. While analyzing multiple poems from different authors, I explore why specifically the vessel of …

The Social Ontology Of Psychiatry: Psychiatric Diagnosis As An Ontogenetic, Interpellative Speech Act, Ashton Sorrels

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Psychiatry is the study, evaluation, and treatment of mental disorders – disorders that affect the behavior and cognition of individuals and which are associated with underlying dysfunctions in the brain and nervous system. Though psychiatry is a medical and scientific discipline, it also takes place within a social context that modifies its effects, particularly in its application of diagnostic categories to individuals. In this thesis, I argue that, because of this context, psychiatric diagnosis can be modeled as an ontogenetic, interpellative speech act. A speech act is an utterance or sign that constitutes an action through its performance, called an …

School Resource Officers' Reports Of Training And Perceptions Of High School Students With Disabilities, Kandace T. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this explanatory sequential, mixed methods research study was to identify the perceptions of school resource officers (SROs) regarding high school students with disabilities and their preparedness to work with this population, as a result of their SRO training. This study involved a national quantitative survey of SROs working in public high schools, followed by one-on-one interviews from the same sample to allow for a deeper analysis of the survey results and develop a theory on how training impacts SRO preparedness and their perceptions of high school students with disabilities. The resulting theory ascertained that the presence of …

Perceptions Of Accessibility From Museum Visitors Who Are Visually Impaired: A Case Study, Jennifer Fortuna Phd, Otrl, Claire Harrison, Abigail Eekhoff, Candice Marthaler, Megan Seromik, Stephanie Ogren Phd, Julia Vandermolen Phd, Ches

Masters Projects

For people with visual impairment, environmental features create barriers to inclusion and participation in public places such as museums. This study gathered direct feedback on accessibility from people with visual impairment to inform a major renovation at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. This study used a participatory action research design. Data collection included a guided walk and semi-structured interviews. A descriptive numerical summary and qualitative thematic analysis were used to summarize the results. Twelve participants were assigned to three categories of visual impairment: low vision, legally blind, and totally blind. The primary barriers to accessibility included inaccessible signage, lack of …

Doctors And Disability: Improving Inclusion In Medical Education, Mary Alice Keller

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Disability is extremely common in the United States with 26% of adults identifying as having some type of disability. Oftentimes, people with disabilities need to access health care services frequently in order to receive adequate care and support. However, despite this need, medical students receive limited, if any, education about people with disabilities and how to appropriately provide medical care and interact with them. This lack of education exacerbates health care disparities experienced by people with disabilities. This article highlights these disparities as well as the history of disability and health care. Current advancements in medical education regarding people with …

Limitations When Conducting Quantitative Disability Research, Kaycee L. Bills, Bradley Mills

Journal of Research Initiatives

Research of issues related to disability is consistently evolving in several social science related fields such as social work, psychology, sociology, and education. Disability research often employs large public datasets for researchers to conduct secondary analysis. However, these datasets come with many limitations that can impact the overall results. The purpose of this article is to discuss the limitations that occur when conducting a quantitative analysis for disability research from a secondary dataset.

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 …

Adults Perspectives Of Friendships And Social Interaction Between Students With And Without Complex Support Needs During A Pandemic, Jorden Morales

Special Education ETDs

Social interactions and friendships are important for all individuals including those with complex support needs (CSN). The voices of adults including parents/guardians, primary caregivers, teachers, and related service providers who responded to a survey provided insight into supporting social interactions and friendships for children with CSN during the Covid-19 pandemic This mixed methods study used thematic analysis to explore participants’ responses to open-ended questions while multiple choice questions were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Additionally, this study included a research narrative to speak to the various roles I hold related to this study (i.e., parent, educator, researcher). Three themes emerged from …

The Threat Of Returning To “Normal”: Resisting Ableism In The Post-Covid Classroom, Sarah M. Parsloe, Elizabeth M. Smith

Feminist Pedagogy

The abrupt switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted pervasive ableism; accommodations that had been “impossible” were suddenly available. This critical commentary draws from interviews with 16 students and our own ethnographic accounts as student/professor to understand how COVID shaped disabled experiences in the classroom. As a student with a disability, Elizabeth was hyperaware of her vulnerability to illness, but also experienced herself as less impaired online. She could control her learning environment to minimize sensory and mobility challenges. Additionally, professors’ flexible policies helped her to manage energy, time, and symptoms. However, Elizabeth and her peers feared an …

Coronavirus Disability Survey: Assessing The Impact Of Covid-19 On Young Adults With Disabilities, Hena Rashid

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to inform individuals of the importance of digital inclusivity, diminish the digital divide, and accessibility to technological services of college students who experience a form of disability. The United States has conducted minimal research on the digital disability rhetoric, promoted minimal disability-inclusive measures to protect the rights and well-being of college students, and minimal assistance to mitigate Coronavirus (COVID-19) impacts to this population subgroup. This subject can have a big impact on individuals who suffer from disability stigma, low accessibility issues, and who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Furthermore, this subject will benefit college students …

It's Just Caring: Improving The Museum Experience For Visitors With Autism Through Social Narratives, Reagan R. Stone

Honors Theses

This project explores how museums can improve the visitor experience for visitors with disabilities, more specifically for visitors with autism. In general, museums are environments that have a specific set of rules, guidelines, and built-in social interactions that visitors are expected to understand and follow. These guidelines, as well as the sensory overload that exists within a new environment, can make visiting the museum a stressful, and even negative experience for individuals with autism and their families. A social narrative, a simple written and visual guide that explains characteristics of new environments and various aspects of social situations, is a …

Assessing Perceptions Of Disability Knowledge Of Campus Police At Inclusive Universities, Hannah Shultz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception of knowledge of campus police on intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), including autism, in inclusive college programs. A survey was sent to both campus police and representatives of 50 inclusive higher education programs across the United States. These questions involved perceptions of campus police knowledge, training, and the safety of students with I/DD.

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 …

Experiential Learning Through Participatory Action Research In An Interdisciplinary Leadership Training Program, Jessica L. Franks, Stephanie D. Baumann, Marvin So, Angela M. Miles, Jorge M. Verlenden, Teal Benevides, Mark Crenshaw, Stephen Truscott, Daniel Crimmins

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Background: Experience in multidisciplinary collaboration among healthcare providers, leaders in public health, and educators is essential to effectively address the diverse needs of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families.

Purpose: We describe three participatory action research (PAR) projects from an interdisciplinary training program, which used experiential learning to enhance leadership competencies and promote inclusive services. Trainees report their leadership growth as providers and advocates for children with I/DD using experiential learning through PAR.

Approach: Trainees discuss their engagement with organizations serving children with I/DD and ways that experiential learning supported leadership skill development, …

La Discapacidad En Los Sistemas De Educación En Bolivia Y Chile, Kree Pace

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The flawed approach to the education of disabled students is an issue that plagues countless countries across the globe, and those in Latin America are no different. Bolivia and Chile are two vastly different countries from a cultural and economic perspective. However, one issue that they have in common is the manner in which they attempt to teach disabled students. There are two major models of disability; social and medical. The social model teaches that disabilities are not inherently negative traits to have, and that those who have them should be supported by society. It also emphasizes that the organization …

Counseling Experiences In Physically Disabled Individuals, Leah Schulze

Honors Projects

This pilot study covers the effects that counseling has on the physically disabled community. 5 individuals were interviewed on a mid-sized college campus about their experiences.

Coaching For Independent Living Skills In Adults With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities At Friends Life Community, Ashley G. Raby

OTD Capstone Projects

Friends Life Community is an organization that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Nashville, TN. They provide a day program, drama therapy, social clubs, career coaching, and life coaching. The life coaching program is an individualized service provided to clients who are striving to become more independent in life skills. This project focused on creating resources and assessments to aid in the coaching process. Resources were created in the following categories: activities, cleaning, hygiene and routines, nutrition and exercise, and budgeting.

Self-Portraits For Social Change: Audience Response To A Photovoice Exhibition By Women With Disability, Diane Macdonald, Angela Dew, Karen Fisher Assoc Prof, Katherine Boydell

The Qualitative Report

Negative attitudes about and behaviours towards women with disability are harmful and exclusionary, contributing to poorer health, income, educational, and employment outcomes. Our study focused on what audiences learnt, felt, and did (what changed) after viewing self-portraits and stories by women with disability. We questioned whether a public exhibition of their artworks, created through photovoice methodology, could be an effective platform to provoke social change and increase inclusion for people with disability. We collected audience response to our exhibition to address a research gap and to provide an example for other photovoice researchers. We employed interpretive thematic analysis through a …

Toward A Crip Provenance: Centering Disability In Archives Through Its Absence, Gracen M. Brilmyer

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Using the records that document the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition as a case study, this article discusses the messiness and unknowability of provenance. Drawing attention to how the concept of provenance can emphasize the reconstruction of a fonds when records have been moved, rearranged, and dispersed, this article draws attention to the ‘curative’ and ‘rehabilitative’ orientations of established notions of provenance. Put in conversation with disability studies scholarship, which critiques rehabilitating, curing, and restoring, this article outlines the theoretical scaffolding of a crip provenance: a disability-centered framework of resisting the desire to restore and instead meets records where they are …

Disability As An Existential Challenge: Reading The Body In Sarah Ismail’S Poetry, Amrit Mishra

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

No abstract provided.

Human Trafficking Of People With A Disability: An Analysis Of State And Federal Cases, Andrea Nichols, Erin Heil

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The current academic discourse examining human trafficking is lacking in focus on survivors with a disability. The increased likelihood of abuse experienced by people with a disability is well documented in the research literature, and a small body of research indicates heightened sex trafficking victimization of minor girls with a disability. Yet, very little research specifically examines sex and/or labor trafficking of people with a disability, and no systematic research analyzes prosecuted cases of trafficking with disability as the focal point of analysis. Drawing from a content analysis of 18 federal and 17 state cases of human trafficking, the current …

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).

A Cord Of Many Strands: A Case Study Of Inclusive Practice Within The Archdiocese Of Los Angeles, Patrick James Allison

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The foundational philosophy of Catholic schools impels them toward inclusive practice. Scholars have repeatedly established that a moral mandate exists in Catholic Social Teaching for Catholic schools to include all students. However, students with disabilities have traditionally been excluded from Catholic school settings due perceived resource constraints, lack of practitioner skill, and the disposition that students with disabilities are better served in public schools. Many Catholic schools have made tremendous progress in inclusive practice, and stand at the forefront of this work, but these efforts have not been replicated at scale.

The purpose of this study was to explore how …

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 …