Disability Studies Commons^™

Neuroqueering Art Therapy: Bringing Neurodivergent Gender Diversity Into The Creative Arts Therapy Room: A Literature Review, Avital Eisen

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Recent research across disciplines has established the significance of the overlap between neurodivergence and gender diversity, a truth long espoused by the community. Acting on this research, some mental health disciplines have begun addressing neurodivergent transgender and gender diverse people as a unified population in their research, but the field of art therapy has not yet followed suit. Theoretical frameworks of intersectionality, queer theory, and disability justice highlight the importance of centering the unique experiences and needs of neurodivergent gender diversity. Using these frameworks, this literature review synthesizes community knowledge with art therapy research on both neurodivergence and gender diversity, …

Using Linked Digital Activity Schedules To Promote Cooperative Thematic Play, Vincent E. Campbell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may struggle to engage in social play, which may impact their willingness to engage in contextually appropriate cooperative play (Koegel et al., 2014). Researchers suggest that activity schedules targeting cooperative play may increase appropriate play for children with ASD (Brodhead et al.,2014; Pellegrino, 2018). However, previous studies did not include opportunities for interactive choice responding or the implementation of generic picture cues during script training. We investigated the impact of a linked digital activity schedule on promoting cooperative thematic play in children with ASD. Six children with ASD engaged …

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 …

“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 …

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 …

Using Virtual And Augmented Reality To Teach Children On The Autism Spectrum With Intellectual Disabilities: A Scoping Review, Emily M. Erb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology have shown great promise for the instruction of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by simulating real-world experiences in a safe and controlled environment. However, there are many reports of the failure of such research to include individuals with both ASD and Intellectual Disability (ID). The present scoping review consists of 20 studies which utilized VR/AR to teach various skills to children and youth with comorbid ASD and ID. Findings show that within the small number of eligible studies, a great deal of variation exists in essentially every …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …