Disability Studies Commons^™

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 …

“She Was No Taller Than Your Thumb. So She Was Called Thumbelina”: Gender, Disability, And Visual Forms In Hans Christian Andersen’S “Thumbelina” (1835), Hannah J. Helm

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

This article explores representations of femininity and disability in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “Thumbelina” (1835) and select examples of his paper art. In this article, I argue that, on one level, the fairy tale and Andersen’s own paper cuttings uphold feminine and ableist norms. However, on another level, these literary and visual forms simultaneously work to destabilise social prejudices and challenge bodily normativity. I explore how characters and themes associated with the fairy tale and paper art can be (re)read in strength-based ways. In the story, Thumbelina experiences the world through her smallness, and key themes including accessibility, physical …

Enigmatic, Tragic, Crip; Or, Crip Time In Sophocles’S Oedipus And Aristotle’S Poetics, Maxwell Gray

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Tragedy represents a classical literary genre the field of disability studies often prefers not to approach too closely, lest disability also be called a tragedy by association. At the same time, my thinking is organized around my personal experience of chronic illness, pain, and disability that appear in early adulthood, when it’s maybe least expected and most difficult to comprehend; or, in a word, tragic. I turn to the literary genre of classical Greek tragedy to think about/with more enigmatic and tragic forms of disability and crip temporality. In particular, I read Sophocles’s classic tragedy Oedipus and Aristotle’s foundational interpretation …

Judging The Body: Disability, Class And Citizen Identity—A Case Study From An Ancient Greek Lawcourt, Justin L. Biggi

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

This paper aims to showcase how one person's disabled identity—that of the unnamed defendant of the legal speech Lysias 24, who was accused of faking his disability to obtain social security payments—interacted with wider conceptions of citizen identity and citizenship in 5^th century BCE Athens. This paper brings a much-needed intersectional approach to the speech: by viewing the speaker's disabled identity as shaped by his economical status (and vice-versa), this in turn shapes the way we can interpret his experience of citizen identity, as well as his sense of belonging to a citizen body. Recent approaches in critical theory …

“Handicap Removed”: An Alternative Path To The Social Model, Craig M. Rustici

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

This article identifies an expression of a social model of disability in a 1966 film promoting Hofstra University’s Program for the Higher Education of the Handicapped and traces that model back to books published by the pioneering rehabilitation physician Henry H. Kessler in 1935 and 1947, decades before the UPIAS (Union of the Physically Impaired against Segregation) Fundamental Principles of Disability (1976). In light of Kessler’s articulation of social and minority models, identification of contrasting religious, charity and medical models, and discussion of disability stigma, this article reassesses Ruth O’Brien’s critique, in Crippled Justice (2001), of Kessler and the twentieth-century …

The Meaning Of A Choice, Julie-Louise Zeitoun

Masters Theses

If you are disabled or disadvantaged, you will be dismissed and stifled. Few people will actively care for your struggles. As a person with autism, I was deeply fearful of the persecution I had faced throughout my life; it was a fear that followed me with terrifying determination. I desperately wanted to blend into society. So I designed myself to be devoid of any weakness, and productivity was the way I chose to conceal any difficulties I faced. It was a way to measure my success — a way to measure my normalcy.

Standard medical textiles are generic, cumbersome devices. …

Psychometric Properties Of The Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (Sbq-R) In American Sign Language, Jared A. Embree, Amanda M. Hinson-Enslin, Kathy Taylor, Josephine Wilson

JADARA

Limited research has focused on the risk of suicide within the deaf community, and no published studies to date report SBQ-R scores in deaf populations. The purpose of this study was to adapt the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised into American Sign Language (SBQ-R-ASL). After the translation protocol was completed, the SBQ-R-ASL was field-tested with 340 deaf individuals in a national sample. Data analysis indicated satisfactory validity and internal consistency, and a Principal Components Analysis resulted in one factor. Field-test data revealed a mean SBQ-R-ASL score of 8.76, which is above published cutoff scores for suicide risk. These findings demonstrate a crucial …

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 …

The Efficacy Of Social And Emotional Learning For High School Students With Cognitive Disabilities, The Experiential Approach, Lawanda Fox

Dissertations

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential to all students' education across all grade levels. However, what does that look like at different developmental stages, and how can SEL best support learning and development for high school students with cognitive disabilities? Young people are becoming more aware of their identities and values in high school. They build upon many social and emotional competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making) developed throughout elementary and middle school. However, students with cognitive disabilities are more challenged than their peers without disabilities to accomplish these competencies. This study aims to identify …

Talking With Horses: Equine Assisted Activities To Promote Social Engagement In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Amy Ezhaya

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Purpose of Project: The purpose of this evidenced-based project is to gather data on how therapeutic horseback riding (THR) facilitates social engagement in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The project aims to provide alternative treatment options and disseminate information to providers on the importance of community partnerships.

Background: In 2020, it was estimated that 1 in 54 children had ASD, which is a 170% increase since 2000. Often, those diagnosed with ASD also experience co-occurring mental health diagnoses placing a large burden of care on our healthcare system. THR is a growing alternative treatment option and has been found …

Sickening Responsibility- Thoughts On Care Work From A Chronically Ill Scholar Activist, Samuel Z. Shelton

International Journal on Responsibility

What does it mean to focus practices of responsibility around sick/unwellness during pandemic times? Using a disability justice framework and drawing from my experiences as a chronically ill / sick person, in this article, I argue that responsibility takes on different meanings when examined through a critical framework that recognizes sickness as an ordinary aspect of life under interlocking systems of power, such as capitalism, White supremacy, ableism/sanism, and cisheteropatriarchy. In particular, I contend that beginning conversations about responsibility from the assumption of sickness - that everyone either sick or has the potential to become sick and that sick people …

Equalizing Postsecondary Transition For At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services: A Chance To Succeed, Karla R. Sanchez

Dissertations

Postsecondary transition can be difficult for At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services (APYRSES). Special educators supporting postsecondary transition often manifest traditional and institutionalized forms of oppressive education while dismissing collective values and beliefs.

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs and attitudes shared by three special education teachers after being introduced to a justice-focused, humanizing intervention to facilitate postsecondary transition for APYRSES. The conceptualized intervention was grounded in liberatory educational frameworks and drew from critical, culturally affirming, sustaining, and humanizing theories that foster cultural reciprocity, self-determination skills, and antiracist social–emotional justice learning to afford opportunities for APYRSES to succeed. The …

Examining The Use Of Expressive Arts Therapies In Neurorehabilitation Treatment Planning, Rebecca J. Horner

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Those undergoing neurorehabilitation after stroke and traumatic brain injury report a diminished sense of overall wellness. This paper examines the conceivable benefits of introducing expressive arts therapies, which is the therapeutic use and combination of the visual arts, movement, drama, music, writing and other intermodal creative processes, into physical therapy and neurorehabilitation treatment planning. Expressive arts therapies have the capacity to engage with an individual’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual states concurrently. They simultaneously offer the ability to promote an increased sense of well-being, address mind-body disconnects, and process trauma non-verbally.

The sections of this narrative literature review focus on …

Playful Dance/Movement Therapy For Traumatized Individuals With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Development Of A Clinical Method, Teagan Collis

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This capstone thesis project explored the potential for dance/movement therapy (DMT) to be an accessible and effective treatment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) that have been impacted by trauma. People with IDD are more vulnerable to adverse life events than the neurotypical population. Past research has largely used treatment designed for neurotypical people who communicate and interpret life events in different ways than people with IDD. The expressive arts therapies, and DMT specifically, have the potential to create a positive embodied experience for people with IDD that have been impacted by trauma. The current method consisted of …

Bone Flute:Exploring Voices From The Margins Of Entrepreneurship With Expressive Therapies, Cherith A. Pedersen

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The problem under investigation is the lived experiences of marginalized entrepreneurs in Barbados. The group of entrepreneurs being explored have been marginalized culturally, institutionally, and resourcefully. The research questions were: How do marginalized entrepreneurs experience business-related encounters due to their identity? How does their identity and use of their “voice” in business situations, position them as businesspersons? Can photography illustrate how they see themselves as businesspersons? There were eight participants in the study, who ranged in age from 18 to 69 years. They were three females and five males who belonged to diverse marginalized identities such as a single mother, …

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 …

Occupation-Based Social Skills Training Program With Animal-Assisted Therapy For Individuals With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/Dd), Jason Sebastian, Karen Park

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

This presentation describes the development and implementation of an occupation-based social skills training program with Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) for Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and the implications for occupational therapy after program implementation.

The Influence Of The Built Environment On The Community Participation Of Adults Aging With Long-Term Physical Disabilities: A Mixed Methods Approach, Rachel H. Desai

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

Adults living with a long-term physical disability experience difficulties living independently and participating in the community as they age. A combination of personal (e.g., fatigue) and environmental (e.g., transportation accessibility) factors influence these restrictions in participation. The impact of the built environment is a key aspect to consider when understanding community participation restrictions for adults aging with long-term physical disabilities (AAwPD) because these factors are often more modifiable. However, the processes by which the built environment impacts AAwPD are not well understood. Interventions targeting these factors to address the community participation needs of AAwPD are limited.

Research informing community-based organizations …

It Is What It Is... Enduring The Never-Ending: The Lived Experiences Of Parenting Adult Children With Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities, Siri Gurunam Kaur Khalsa

Nursing ETDs

The parental home is the principal place of residence for adults with developmental disabilities/ intellectual disabilities (DD/ID) (Heller et al., 2007). More than 75% of the adult population with DD/ID living in the U.S. continue to have their basic needs provided by their parents (Williamson & Perkins, 2014). This is based on the estimated statistic that 1.0 to 1.58% of the U.S. adult population has a developmental disability (Anderson et al., 2019; Fox et al., 2015). About 2.9 million adults with DD/ID live with a parent of 55 years (Byun et al., 2006), with more than 25% of these parents …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Para-Athletes: A Case Study On Motivation And Psychological Training For The 2020 Paralympic Games, Irina Perfilova

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In the 61-year history of the Paralympic Games, the Games have never been canceled for any public health reasons. In order to participate in the Paralympic Games, the preparation process for professional athletes is planned at least four years in advance. Interruptions to this schedule can present significant challenges for elite athletes. Such was the case in 2020 with widespread cancellations of many athletic events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of in-home isolation can potentially cause athletes to experience different psychological conditions, including depression and anxiety as well as losing motivation. The purpose of this study was to …

How Did Healthcare Affordability Change For U.S. Adults With Intellectual Disability After The Implementation Of The Affordable Care Act?, Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich

Center for Policy Research

Individuals with intellectual disabilities are marginalized in the United States and have worse health outcomes than their peers without disabilities. Lower socioeconomic status and a reliance on social welfare benefits and public health insurance programs often create barriers to access to care. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to make healthcare services more accessible. This brief summarizes the findings from a recent study that examined patterns in healthcare affordability under the ACA or noninstitutionalized adults ages 18-64 with intellectual disabilities. The findings suggest that the ACA increased the likelihood that adults with intellectual disabilities would access medical, specialty, …

Links Between Mental Health And Employment Outcomes Among Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Emma Atkinson

Honors Theses

Problem: Mental health outcomes related to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been extensively researched, although most research in the area is on children with ASD. Studies on adults with ASD are scarcer. More specifically, studies that analyze the association between mental health and work-life balance (WLB) as well as mental health and job satisfaction (JS) among employed adults with ASD is limited. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between mental health and WLB among adults with ASD, the association between mental health and perceived JS among adults with ASD, and whether or not ASD severity moderates …

International Strategies For Addressing The Needs Of Children With Disabilities: Comparing Pediatric Therapy Services In Italy And The United States, Cassidy Hearn, Lillian Hsiao, Lavinia Fanelli, Regina Harbourne

Physical Therapy Projects

This paper introduces and compares the professions of Neuro and Psychomotor Therapist of Developmental Age and pediatric physical therapy. Although pediatric physical therapy practice is prevalent in the United States, Italy utilizes another profession which encompasses many features of physical therapy, but also incorporates neuropsychological factors, specifically for children.

Can Psycho-Social Benefits Be Observed In Those With Intellectual Disabilities During Dmt?, Hannah Johnson

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Often training and learning opportunities ignore the unique needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Helping this population cope with problems that will occur in their lives could increase their feelings of well-being and might decrease feelings of isolation. This workshop used the techniques from Mary Starks Whitehouse’s practice of Authentic Movement (Whitehouse et al., 1999) to support paticipants’ emotional self regulation during training for a new job at an apple orchard. The use of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) as an intervention for individuals with intellectual disabilities could increase coping skills, which could create greater opportunities for them to increase their …

How Did Healthcare Affordability Change For U.S. Adults With Intellectual Disability After The Implementation Of The Affordable Care Act?, Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich

Population Health Research Brief Series

Individuals with intellectual disabilities are marginalized in the United States and have worse health outcomes than their peers without disabilities. Lower socioeconomic status and a reliance on social welfare benefits and public health insurance programs often create barriers to access to care. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to make healthcare services more accessible. This brief summarizes the findings from a recent study that examined patterns in healthcare affordability under the ACA or noninstitutionalized adults ages 18-64 with intellectual disabilities. The findings suggest that the ACA increased the likelihood that adults with intellectual disabilities would access medical, specialty, …

Dissecting The Musical Body: Analyzing The Influence Of Body Norms On Musical Discourse, Lauren Del Rosario '23

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experiences Of Deaf People In Carceral Settings, Grace Lester

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

There is a paucity of research that explores the deaf experience within carceral settings, and a lack of large, rigorously designed studies that provide conclusive evidence of this phenomenon. Similarly, policy development regarding the abolition of, or reformations to, the corrections system in the United States rarely addresses the needs of deaf people within this system. A lack of understanding of the experiences of deaf individuals creates a barrier to the assurance that justice is provided equitably through effective, accessible services and facilities which carceral structures may be inherently unequipped to provide. Through semi-structured interviews, this preliminary study inquired formerly …

External Support: The Importance Of Community Support In Disability Healthcare, Kian Mccabe

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Inequalities in healthcare is a common discussion topic every day in the United States and although most Americans are not able to get adequate healthcare, they need one subtopic that I believe is not discussed enough about disability healthcare. More specifically the importance of community support and resources in disability health care. My internship this semester was helping lower-income families find the resources they need for their children with autism spectrum disorder. In this position, I learned that many of the positive activities and resources that would be helpful for their children most families are unable to get because they …

Investigating The Viability Of Virtual Job Interview Training Through Pre-Ets, Elyse Hayes

Honors Theses

This study used a between-subjects repeated measures design to determine the efficacy of virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) as an instrument for providing workplace readiness training under pre-ETS when compared to current real-world methods. Of the total participants (N=19), 57.89% were male and 42.11% were female, and autism (36.84%) and cognitive impairment (47.37%) were the most frequently reported diagnoses. The results of a paired samples T-test were non-significant with t (8) = 0.13, p = 0.9029 with the use of mock interviews and t (9) = 0.68, p = .5156 with the use of virtual reality. The results of …

Transitioning Out Of A 4-Year Non-Degree-Seeking Program For Emerging Adults With Neurodiversity, Ashlyn Walker

Human Development and Family Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

There are an increasing number of emerging adults with neurodiversity entering higher education. However, little is known about benefits and barriers to programs designed to aid in student success for neurodivergent emerging adults. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of neurodivergent emerging adults enrolled in a non-degree-seeking 4-year program. Participants were recruited to complete an interview assessing their lived experiences, the benefits and barriers, and the transition out of the program and into adulthood. Important themes emerged including the importance of mentors and program staff, the role of identity/confidence, development of life and social skills, the …