Disability Studies Commons^™

Towards Dementia-Inclusive Digital Text-Based Health Information: A Multi-Method Investigation Of Cognitive And Affective Accessibility, Margi Engineer

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines the accessibility, readability, emotional tone, and trustworthiness of digital, text‑based dementia information and investigates how older adults with and without dementia cognitively and affectively engage with such content. It further explores the potential of generative AI to improve dementia information delivery through the development of a domain‑specific retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) large language model (LLM) chatbot designed to deliver accessible, stigma‑free information. The dissertation comprises four studies using complementary quantitative and qualitative methods. Study I conducts a large‑scale content analysis of 300 medical articles, 35 websites, and 50 blogs, applying readability metrics, LIWC‑based linguistic and sentiment analysis, and …

Emotion Regulation And Autism: A Literature Review, Quinn Bethea

Honors Theses

This comprehensive literature review investigates the increasing research on emotional regulation and autism, as well as the effect they have on each other.

The literature search was conducted using databases such as Google Scholar, National Institute of Health, and the Mississippi State Library. The inclusion criteria focused on studies that examined emotion regulation, autism, or the impact of emotion regulation and autism on each other.

The review accomplished several points. First, it defined what autism is, and it defined what emotion regulation is. Second, it examined how autism and emotion regulation, or dysregulation, affect each other. Third, it brought attention …

Fitness For All: Education For Gym Staff Supporting People With Disabilites, Bianca Loor, Mary Jan Greer, Alison Skean

Spring 2026 OTD Capstone Symposium

This capstone project, “Fitness for All: Education for Gym Staff Supporting People with Disabilities,” focuses on improving accessibility and inclusion within community fitness settings through staff education. Individuals with disabilities often encounter barriers in gyms due to limited staff training, lack of confidence, and insufficient knowledge of adaptive fitness practices.

To address this gap, a comprehensive, evidence-based training program was developed and implemented for gym staff at Crunch Fitness Orange Park. The program incorporated occupational therapy frameworks, including the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) model and the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF-4), to promote inclusive and client-centered fitness practices.

Using a mixed-methods approach, …

Challenging Assumptions: Social Participation And Barriers For Autistic Students In Higher Education, Sue Iliff, Nicole Richard Williams, Siobahn Collins, Abby Noblitt, Meris Gilliam, Tori Knox, Alina Randall

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Autistic students bring diverse social preferences and ways of engaging to college, yet campus structures often do not reflect the full range of these experiences. Understanding how students across neurotypes navigate social participation can inform more inclusive practices. This mixed‑methods study used a convergent parallel design to examine the social experiences of autistic and non‑autistic undergraduates at a mid‑sized private university. Quantitative survey items assessed participation levels, satisfaction, and perceived barriers, while open‑ended responses provided qualitative insights. Quantitative analyses showed no significant group differences in hours of participation, satisfaction, or reported barriers. Qualitative findings highlighted varied social experiences across neurotypes: …

“The Left Leg Is Not Well”: Identity, Economy, And Ability In Early Modern Drama, Emma D. Whaley

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The human reality of the disabled experience often goes overlooked by scholars analyzing early modern literature. Most scholarship seems to interpret disability as metaphorical without examining the human who experiences it. In this paper, I will be examining disability in three early modern texts as literal and inquire into the realities of the disabled experience for the characters. A Larum for London, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, and The Fair Maid of the Exchange all prominently feature a disabled character—Stump, Ralph, and Cripple respectively. These characters offer a depth of personhood rarely examined in early modern literary scholarship, even in …

On Speaking Up: Fluency Isn’T Intelligence — Living With A Stutter In A World That Expects Perfection, Dalton D. Conden

The Penguin Review

I-I-I-I’ve lived most of my life in the space between words—the pause, the breath, the moment of uncertainty where my voice decides whether it wants to cooperate. People often assume stuttering is a tiny inconvenience, like forgetting your keys or having bad Wifi. A stutter doesn’t fade just because you enter adulthood, college, or leadership roles. It grows with you. It travels into classrooms, meetings, speeches, and any moment where your voice becomes your first introduction to the world.

Student Perspectives On The Selection And Suitability Of Emotional Support Animals, Ella G. Speer

Create@State

Emotional support animals (ESA) are classified as any species of animal that provides cognitive and emotional benefits for individuals struggling with mental health impairments (Ferrell, Crowley 2021, p. 561). Emotional support animals differ from service and therapy animals because there are no restrictions regarding the specie selection if the owner perceives their benefits (Ferrell, Crowley 2021, p. 561). Relaxed regulations on the specie of emotional support animals allow individuals the opportunity to choose any animal based on their perceived benefits (Pettable Staff, Fleming 2024). Recently, universities have implemented an emotional support animal policy to protect students who live on campus …

Occupational Therapy In Adaptive Sports And Recreational Activities: Addressing Social Skills Deficits In Individuals With Disabilities, Deanna P. Pelfrey

Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate - Doctoral Capstone Symposium

Adaptive recreation programs promote physical participation, confidence, and overall positive well-being; however, research indicates that social and communication challenges often persist when social skills are not intentionally taught (Crespo‑Eguílaz et al., 2024). Additionally, many community recreation settings lack consistent social skills programming to support meaningful social inclusion (Ristevski et al., 2024). This project aimed to address these gaps by integrating social skills instruction into adaptive recreation programming at a community-based recreational facility serving individuals with disabilities. The primary purpose of the project was to strengthen and enhance athletes’ social participation and success by embedding clear social skills modules into existing …

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, …

Benefits And Barriers: Csd Faculty Attitudes Toward Student Accommodations, Erika Squires, Lori A. Pakulski, Celeste Domsch

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Purpose: Academic accommodations in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) have been explored via university websites and surveys of clinical educators, but little is known about CSD faculty attitudes toward accommodations in higher education. This study explored the types of accommodations faculty report and the benefits and barriers they encounter in doing so.

Method: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods study design was used to survey CSD faculty and instructors about the types of accommodations used by CSD students and the benefits and barriers associated with accommodations. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize participants’ responses. Qualitative analyses were used to identify themes on benefits …

Inclusive Special Education: Changing Mindsets And Practices To Improve Student Achievement, Nicole S. Pechous

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Decades after federal mandates for special education services, students with disabilities (SWD) continue to lag significantly behind their peers in academic achievement and post–school outcomes. This quantitative study explores how the inclusive mindsets and collaborative practices of general and special education teachers from a medium–sized, suburban Midwestern district improved after participating in a year-long training series on inclusive practices. The study also explores the impact of increased inclusive mindsets and practices on student reading achievement, particularly for students with disabilities. Using a quantitative design, changes in inclusive mindsets and practices for participating teachers were analyzed. Findings indicated that participation in …

Cripping The Border – Acompañamiento As Access: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Transborder Youth With Disabilities, Marco O. Amaral

Dissertations

The U.S.-Mexico border is a historical, geopolitical site of intense militarization where colonial logics of "othering" converge to marginalize disabled transborder youth. While transborder studies have expanded, students with disabilities remain relegated to the "void" and contained by educational systems that prioritize surveillance over access. Grounded in Sepúlveda’s (2011) acompañamiento and Transborder DisCrit, this ethnographic case study examines the lived experiences of both students and their families who cross the border daily to attend school in the U.S. It frames these journeys not as mere commutes, but as acts of defiance within the broader disability rights movement.

As a teacher-activist, …

Promoting Participation In Adults With Intellectual Disabilities (Id) Through Inclusive Theatre Education And A Professional Theatre Partnership, Lila R. Clark

Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate - Doctoral Capstone Symposium

Intellectual Disabilities (ID) are characterized by a deficit in intellectual and adaptive function that affects between 1% and 3% of the general population (Patel et al., 2020). As young people age out of the school system between 18 and 21 years of age, opportunities for meaningful participation in their community drop drastically (Codd & Hewitt, 2020). This lack of opportunity can lead to decreased overall mental health and quality of life, possibly explaining why adults with ID are disproportionately affected by mental illness when compared to their typically developing peers (Hall, 2017; Pinals et al., 2022). The purpose of this …

State Ramps And Church Stairs: The History Of Disability In The Reformed Church In America, Jett Haveman

Honors Projects

This is a paper detailing the history of the RCA and the disability community. It attempts to make a broader claim about what the Christian Church as a whole could do better and has historically fallen behind at. Since 1978, the evolution of the RCAs relationship with people with disabilities has followed a distinctive pattern, as despite a theological mandate to care for the marginalized, the RCA has rarely pioneered social or legal inclusion. Instead, it has largely mirrored the pace of the United States government, often waiting for secular civil rights milestones to provide the framework and pressure for …

Start With What They Know: Using Motivational Interviewing To Create A Cooking Class, A Culinary Intervention For Teens (Autistic And Non-Autistic), Gwendolyn S. Tedder

LEND Trainee Presentations

Autistic teens are at greater risk for having heart disease and diabetes as adults. Food particularity, sensory issues, fixed mindset, and anxiety over trying new things can slow down their interest in preparing food for themselves. Nurturing basic cooking skills and gently encouraging trying new foods would provide more nutritional options to teens as they move into adulthood. A cooking class preceded by Motivational Interviewing (MI) developed further interest in preparing food afterward in teens, both autistic and non-autistic, and in trying new foods for autistic teens with food concerns.

Effects Of Ndbi With Just-In-Time Programming Of Vsds On Communication Of Children With Asd, Jenna M. Rogers

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a prominent neurological and developmental disability that often requires communication support, such as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Visual Scene Displays (VSDs) are an AAC support that directly immerses in the user’s life, using images from real environments the user has or may experience. Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) is an evidence-based approach to early intervention that targets social communication during naturalistic routines, including those who rely on AAC support to communicate. Despite recent research indicating that combining NDBI and AAC is a promising approach (Pope et al., 2024), no studies to date have examined …

Exploring Autistic Children’S Play Cycles Using The Play Cycle Observation Method (Pcom), Eleanor C. Mugford, Pete King

International Journal of Playwork Practice

The Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM) enables researchers to observe and record the process of play based on the theory of the Play Cycle. While the PCOM has been used with both video footage and in real-time observation of neurotypical children, it has not previously been applied with neurodivergent children. This study involved ten one-hour naturalistic PCOM observations with nine autistic children during play sessions. The results demonstrated variability in play processes, with several styles of play behaviour observed, including differences in how play was initiated, sustained, and terminated. The findings both corroborate and challenge strands of the existing literature …

“I Should’Ve Listened!”: Lived Experiences Of Postsecondary Transitions Among Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders From Non-Traditional High Schools, Kristen De Rose

Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of former students with EBD who attended a non-traditional high school. Eight semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to understand how students experienced emotional and academic supports during high school and throughout the transition into adulthood. Results revealed that participants appreciated attending a non-traditional school for its school connectedness, emotional and instructional supports, and school-based counseling. Additionally, findings suggest the school did not prepare them for the transition to post-secondary life. These findings suggest that emotional and academic support for students with EBD in non-traditional high school settings positively affected students’ sense of success …

Transformational Leadership In Higher Education, Dr. Jewel Hale, Jr., Kristi Apostel

Tapestry: Journal of Research in Education

A crisis can highlight the critical need for resilient leadership within higher educational settings. Educational leaders encounter extraordinary difficulties, ranging from different learning options to prioritizing the well-being of both staff and students, necessitating flexible and innovative methods. By exploring how school leaders apply transformational techniques in actual educational environments, this article addresses the impact of the four I’s of transformational leadership, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration, on building educator resiliency, sustaining school effectiveness, and promoting student achievement in higher education.

Fierce Leadership-Perspectives Of Black Women Educational Leaders: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study, Janice Taylor, Dianne Reed

Tapestry: Journal of Research in Education

The authors of this transcendental phenomenological study aimed to describe the lived experiences of Black women based on their perceptions, values, and beliefs about the complexities of leadership and the kind of leadership required to succeed in their respective roles, as educational leaders. This study was framed by the adaptive leadership theory. Adaptive leadership recognizes the need for leaders to stay flexible and resilient in fast-paced environments (Nelson & Squires, 2017). The three Black women leaders in this study were fierce adaptive leaders. The information acquired from this study is significant and highlights how Black women educational leaders developed the …