For this research, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with primary caregivers that have adult children with disabilities. These interviews explored the lived experience of caregiving of primary caregivers. Three main themes surrounding care were found, all falling within the larger context of tensions in care. The first theme captures tensions in policy that promote empowerment but also produce disablement. Second, tensions exist between service agencies and lived experience of care. Lastly, tensions exist between were between the burdens and rewards of caregiving. It is these three themes and tensions that impact caregiving experiences at a personal level with the participants. These tensions are explored at a qualitative level and are illuminated by the lived experiences of the participants. Through this research the complex and understudied world of disability and care are explored. This research has implications for future policy development of support services for families that have an adult child with developmental disabilities. Further, these tensions illuminate the complex world of caregiving for those with disabilities in a way that examines life course impacts on caregivers themselves. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

In this thesis, I examine traditional philosophical arguments concerning the disabled body. I contribute to disability theory by focusing on disabled individuals who employ the use of advanced prosthetics, and by looking at the implications of said prosthetics on disabled individuals’ lived experiences and the ideology of disability. I join other thinkers in finding current disability theory inadequate in its attempts to accurately describe disability and aid disabled individuals to flourish and resist discrimination and marginalization. I suggest that advanced prosthetic use by disabled persons results in the overt cyborgification of the disabled body. Furthermore, I suggest that the cyborgification of the disabled body requires us to re-evaluate the binary of ability vs. disability, and requires us to stop essentializing the disabled body as disabled. I suggest therefore, that these new technologies should be considered morally permissible, and respond to possible objections from the standpoints of fairness and from concerns more broadly regarding transhumanism. Ultimately, questions remain as to any regulatory schemes that should possibly be put in place regarding advanced prosthetics to either limit or promote access to advanced prosthetic technologies for various groups, and to what degree disabled persons should be able to draw on medical resources to access advanced prosthetics. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / In this thesis I aim at unpacking the ways in which traditional theories about disability fail to view the disabled body in an accurate way. I examine the advance of prosthetic technologies as they relate to disability and suggest that in this way the disabled person is a very good example of a cyborg. I then apply cyborg ideologies to ideas of disability and suggest the cyborgification of the disabled body is beneficial both from a flourishing and an ideological standpoint. I finally consider and respond to some objections against advanced prosthetics and transhumanism more broadly.

With our global aging population, low muscular strength and function significantly impact an older adult’s capacity to remain independent. Older adults experience gradual declines in physical function and mobility leading to difficulty completing activities of daily living. These difficulties are conceptualized as an expression of mobility disability or through diagnoses of clinical geriatric syndromes such as frailty. Aging physiology in the musculoskeletal system clinically translates into declines in physical function due to losses in muscular strength. Preventative interventions may be appropriate as failing to intervene until critical thresholds are reached will increase healthcare expenditure. Resistance training is a highly beneficial, cost-effective, conservative strategy for community-dwelling older adults to optimize physical resiliency through increasing muscular strength and function lost due to aging, sedentary behaviour and/or physical inactivity. Resistance training needs to be dosed appropriately for function to improve, but clinicians rarely prescribe high-load resistance training with older adults, especially those at risk for mobility decline and frailty. The overarching goal of this thesis was to evaluate the role of resistance training in managing mobility disability and prefrailty. This thesis is comprised of three studies to address this goal: (1) The role of resistance training to improve or prevent mobility disability in community-dwelling older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (2) The use of High- Intensity Enhanced Resistance Training (HEaRT) to optimize independence and quality of life in older adults with or at-risk of mobility disability: a pilot randomized controlled trial. (3) An Ounce of Prevention: a substudy of pre-frail older adults from the HEaRT pilot randomized controlled trial. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / As people get older, the amount of muscle they have, and their strength start to decrease. When too much strength is lost, individuals can begin to have difficulties completing tasks around their home or can be at risk for developing health issues such as disability and frailty. Strength training has been one way proposed to increase strength and physical function for those at risk for mobility disability and those at risk for frailty (prefrailty). This strength training is often of low intensity despite guidelines advocating for higher-intensity exercise. This thesis evaluates the benefit of strength training, specifically using high-load, for those with mobility disability and the safety and feasibility of high-intensity resistance training for those with prefrailty and those at risk for or with established mobility disability.

The brain-machine interface (BMI) is an exciting new class of device in the field of biomedical engineering that shows great promise for the rehabilitation of persons with paralysis by recording neural signals and translating them into movement of objects such as prosthetics and computer cursors. This study aims to present a brief history of the devices including the three main methods of recording neural signals as well as some of the functions possible with BMIs and their basic design. It will also provide insight into some of the technical challenges currently preventing BMIs from widespread use for rehabilitative therapy including, but not limited to, signal degradation and a lack of design consensus. This study will also give examples of exciting new methods that are being considered for integration into the BMI world such as functional electrical stimulation and optogenetics as well as providing some examples of currently available commercial BMIs that are on the market. The study will conclude with a discussion of what needs to be done in order for BMIs to eventually enable paralyzed persons to live independently. A hypothetical scenario is depicted that highlights some of the factors that will need to be considered in order to allow a paralyzed person to fully rely on their BMI. Finally, a discussion of the ethical implications of BMIs are presented including how BMIs should be implemented with children as there is currently no research on that subject. Pediatric adoption of cochlear implants is used as an example of a similar technology that has already been widely accepted for public use despite lingering ethical concerns.

Why do we behave the way we do? Can behaviour be modified? This thesis explores these questions by looking at behavioural and neuropsychology and how we control two basic emotions: fear and disgust. As this thesis will demonstrate, these two emotions compel us to avoid danger and go to extreme lengths to keep "safe." Using leprosy as its first case study, it tracks the evolution of more positive attitudes towards people with leprosy. It explores what life was like in Western Europe's 11th to 13th centuries. It juxtaposes those positive attitudes against later negative attitudes. It examines the stigmatization of diseases and disabilities, asking what fear and disgust are and how they affect human behaviour. This sets the stage for discussing HIV/AIDS, compared to leprosy, to demonstrate similar behaviour. The focal point of attitudes towards leprosy and HIV/AIDS is behavioural conditioning, a technique for retraining the brain to reinterpret a stimulus to mean something else. This thesis argues that this method can reduce fear, disgust, and stigma in most attitudes and behaviours about diseases and disabilities.

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The Response to Intervention (RtI) model is an identification model for Specific Learning Disability (SLD), one of the 13 disability categories identified under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004. The RtI model has been proposed as an alternative model to the discrepancy model (e.g., intelligence quotient-achievement discrepancy model). In the RtI model, students’ responsiveness (e.g., levels of performance and slopes of progress) yields their eligibility for special education. However, to date, research that examined the validity of the RtI model (e.g., examination of intervention responsiveness with students with academic deficits) has been limited in the area of mathematics. The purpose of this study was to examine the responsiveness of elementary-aged students, with and without SLD, to interventions for mathematics calculation. It was hypothesized that students with mathematics deficits would demonstrate progress after receiving an empirically-derived intervention, regardless of their placement in general or special education. It was also hypothesized that students with mathematics deficits would demonstrate satisfaction with intervention procedures and self-efficacy with their progress after receiving an empirically-derived intervention. Students with and without SLD were selected based on specific criteria for this study (e.g., a skill deficit). To examine these hypotheses, for each student, an intervention was selected using an experimental analysis. The effects of the intervention on mathematics calculation were examined using single subject design. Maintenance on instructional materials and generalization from instructional-level to grade-level materials were examined. Social validity (e.g., satisfaction) of interventions and self-efficacy of students were also assessed. The results of the study indicate that empirically-derived interventions were effective in enhancing the calculation skills of students with and without SLD and maintaining their skills during and after the intervention phase. However, the students with and without SLD did not generalize their calculation skills to grade-level materials. The students demonstrated high levels of satisfaction with the interventions at the end of the interventions and enhanced their self-efficacy across the study. The study partially supported the validity of the RtI model in the area of mathematics such that the RtI model may be reliable in identification of students with SLD in mathematics calculation.

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