TITLE: Phenomenon of disability and its image in the print media AUTHOR: Lenka Opočenská DEPARTMENT: Department of Special Education SUPERVISOR: Mgr. Lenka Felcmanová ABSTRACT: The thesis "The phenomenon of disability and its image in the print media" aims to find out how periodicals framed chosen topic of disabilities in one year. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the typology of models of disability and the definition of disability from different perspectives. The third chapter provides an overview of how the media shape the attitudes of society. The research section concentrates on how the media has framed newspaper articles and whether terminology changes were reflected in the media. KEYWORDS: Disability, models of disability, attitudes, framing, print media

~ ..•.. There are two types of Oxford Filter; blue filters enhance short wavelength light and yel,low enhance long wavelength light. These filters have previously been shown to improve reading performance, vergence eye movements and perception of visual form and motion. In this thesis the effects of such filters were examined in both an unselected primary school population, and in a clinical population of children with identified visual and/or reading difficulties. A school based visual screening study established that just over 40% of children identified a filter as beneficial when viewing text. These children reported a significantly higher number of visual symptoms and had significantly reduced convergence and accommodation eye movements compared to non-filter choosers. A further trial of filter use revealed that those using blue filters made significant improvements in accommodative function and in spelling ability. A cross-over, randomised controlled trial was conducted in the clinical sample with psychometric, orthoptic and psychophysical assessments administered before and after filter use. Poor readers made significant improvements in reading following filter use, but a smaller dyslexic group were not found to improve their reading. Performance on a Matrices task significantly improved after using yellow filters specifically. There was also evidence that children with reduced saccades improved their spelling with the use of yellow filters, but had reduced spelling following blue use. Although filters impacted upon both orthoptic and literacy measures these improvements appear not to be causally linked. A random dot kinematogram task (RDK) revealed a correlation between magnocellular functioning under blue and yellow lighting conditions and reading; lower reading was associated with poorer RDK thresholds. This association was specific to reading and not evident in relation to dyslexia. Visual search accuracy was also shown to improve significantly after the use of blue and yellow filters. Together these findings have implications for the treatment of orthoptic abnormalities and literacy performance.

Thesis (M.Sc.(Physiotherapy)), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / Background Lower back pain (LBP) is a very prevalent and potentially disabling condition throughout the world not excluding South Africa. Most people in South Africa make use of Government hospitals making the results of this research applicable to the general population. Questionnaires like the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) are easy and effective research tools to assess disability from LBP but most of them are developed in English. In South Africa however, many people are often not literate in English or struggle to fill in a questionnaire correctly without some assistance. This is possibly due to the previous education system adopted by the Apartheid government, variety of different cultures and the 11 official languages. Objectives To formulate a culturally adapted English version of the ODI suitable for possible use in the Zulu speaking population. Secondly, to establish whether there is a relationship between the degree of assistance needed to fill in the questionnaire and the level of education of the subject. Thirdly, to measure the internal consistency of the modified ODI and lastly to identify inconsistencies when using a translator for data collection. Study Design Explorative cross-sectional study Methods Cultural adaptation of the ODI was done suitable for the Zulu speaking population. Recordings were made of the participants filling in the modified ODI to identify problematic questions and inconsistencies in translations offered by the research assistant. The amount of assistance needed for each participant was scored with a rating scale and relationships were shown with regards to level of education. The internal consistency of the modified ODI was determined. Results A culturally adapted English version of the ODI was produced and problematic phrases altered. Two groups were identified from the data collection process; the assisted (20) and the Independent group (36).Overall the assisted group had lower levels of education and needed up to 100% assistance with the questionnaire compared with the Independent group. The overall Internal consistency of the questionnaire was found to be 0.8183 (Chronbach alpha) which is considered as good reliability. Inconsistencies with translations were identified and reported. Conclusion A significant amount of the target population needed assistance when filling in the English ODI despite the cultural adaptation thereof. This may be due to lower levels of education and the fact that they were mostly schooled in Zulu. Making use of a translator may not be the most reliable form of data collection but keeping in mind the literacy levels in South Africa, it may be a more accurate way of collecting correct data from individuals compared with incurring massive costs in translating of documents into a target language.

Este estudo analisa o uso de um conjunto de categorias sociais de diferença e hierarquia sumarizadas pelo termo deficiência intelectual, procurando atritos produtivos entre as experiências de campo e a tradição disciplinar. Para tanto, foi realizada uma etnografia junto a uma empresa de lazer para pessoas especiais que opera em São Paulo. Objetivou-se verificar como os sujeitos que frequentam a empresa agenciam a marcação da deficiência em suas trajetórias e interações sociais, a partir de dois problemas específicos: identidade e subjetividade. Nesse esforço, estabeleci interlocução com o campo dos marcadores sociais da diferença e dos Disability Studies, ou Estudos sobre Deficiência, visando contribuir para uma abordagem antropológica da deficiência, que vem se gestando em anos recentes no Brasil. / This study analyses the use of a set of social categories of difference and hierarchy, put together by the notion of intellectual disability, looking for productive encounters between field experiences and the disciplinary tradition. To do so, ethnography was conducted in a leisure company for special people in Sao Paulo. The objective here was to observe how the subjects who engage in the companys activities deal with the mark of the disability in their trajectories and social interactions, taking into consideration two particular problems: identity and subjectivity. In that effort, I sought dialogue with the field of social markers of difference and Disability Studies, aiming to contribute with an anthropological approach to disability that has been under development in recent years in Brazil.

Rehabilitation outcomes are an important measurement of trauma system effectiveness. However, currently there is no clinically applicable trauma rehabilitation score or framework available to evaluate health and rehabilitation needs after trauma. The World report on Disability (2011) recommended the application of the World Health Organisation International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF) as a framework for all aspects of rehabilitation. A standardised language, based on coded categories would aid in international efforts to evaluate health and disability globally. The ICF framework has not been applied in trauma rehabilitation or trauma systems to date. The objectives were to investigate rehabilitation needs of trauma patients and evaluate to what extent the ICF can be used as a framework to capture and assess health and rehabilitation outcome of patients following traumatic injuries. Two cohort studies with 103 and 308 patients respectively demonstrated the utility of the Rehabilitation Complexity Scale (RCS) in an acute trauma setting. The RCS outperformed other acute measures and rehabilitation complexity correlated with length of stay and discharge destination. A systematic review of 34 articles confirmed that outcome measures frequently used in trauma outcome studies represent only six percent of health concepts contained in the ICF. A quantitative international on-line questionnaire with expert clinicians working in trauma (n=217), identified 121 ICF categories pertinent to rehabilitation and health outcome of trauma patients. Qualitative patient interviews (n=32) identified nearly double the amount of ICF categories (n=234) compared to clinicians. Combined analysis of qualitative and quantitative data presents 109 ICF categories important for rehabilitation and health outcome assessment of trauma patients, using the ICF as a framework. This thesis describes the need for improved outcome evaluation of trauma patients. It demonstrates the acceptability of the ICF language and framework amongst clinicians and suggests the application of the ICF as a framework for trauma service delivery and outcome assessment.

The current study examined treatment intrusiveness within behavior intervention programs developed for adults with intellectual disability (ID). Behavior analysts provided demographic information about themselves, their adult clients with ID, and their clients’ behavior intervention plans, and they completed an online version of the Treatment Intrusiveness Measure (Carter et al., 2009), an instrument that provides a Base Level Intrusiveness Score (BLIS; a score computed across five areas of categorization, such as, Health and Safety) and a Modified Level of Intrusiveness Score (MLIS), which assesses the presence or absence of intrusiveness-reducing practices. Among other findings, various statistical analyses revealed (a) a significant difference between BLIS and modified (BLIS minus MLIS) intrusiveness scores, (b) the practices within which most of the intrusiveness was concentrated within behavioral treatment programs, and (c) the least- and most-utilized intrusiveness-reducing practices. Implications are provided to assist professionals working with adults with ID who engage in challenging behavior and are supported through behavior intervention services.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to trouble existing conceptions of disability that ground music education literature and practice. I sought plausible insights into how disability is experienced in, through, and/or around music by participants who are disabled persons/persons with disabilities (DP/PwD). Insights gained might allow readers to complexify and trouble taken-for-granted assumptions about disability. Questions included: (a) How do participants experience disability in, through, and around music? (b) What plausible insights related to disability can be gained by attending to participants’ experiences of disability in, through, and around music? (c) What plausible insights related to inclusion can be gained by attending to participants’ experiences of disability in, through, and around music? The inquiry approach was grounded in Buberian relational ontology, phenomenology, interactional theories of disability, and narrative. Seven DP/PwD participated in this study: (a) Erica, a 14-year-old diagnosed with a developmental disability of unknown etiology; (b) Duke, a drummer diagnosed with Williams syndrome; (c) Birdie, an abstract visual artist with epilepsy who used music to inform her art; (d) Daren, a b-boy/breakdancer diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, (e) Sienna, a legally blind social work college student who played banjo in a music therapy-based bluegrass band and participated in musical theatre; (f) Ice Queen, an undergraduate flute player recently diagnosed with Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and (g) Culann, an adult counselor and music listener with ADHD and mood disorders. Data generation included conversational interviews, observations, artmaking, and serendipitous data. Data co-generated with participants were crafted into narratives of their lifeworlds, including description of their experiences with disability in, through, and around music and in other aspects of their lives. An envisioned conversation among all participants demonstrates the shifts and complexities in the meanings of disability and unpacks different ways participants describe and understand disability and the myriad roles that music plays in their lifeworlds. The final chapter of the study offers discussions and suggestions regarding thinking about and approaching disability (i.e., interactional theories, intersectionality, and identity), inclusion (i.e., belonging, suggestions by participants, and anti-ableist pedagogy), and research/writing. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music Education 2019

This dissertation examines lived experiences of mental disability and neurodivergency in contemporary women’s writing. It demonstrates that social forces and identifications across race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability mediate experiences with mental disability in the contemporary era. I draw from disability studies, feminist cultural studies, feminist philosophy, critical race studies, and affect studies in order to explore interdisciplinary questions about mental illness, neurodivergency, and mental disability in contemporary literature and culture. I bring an intersectional feminist disability studies methodology to the archetype of the “madwoman,” theorized by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in their groundbreaking 1979 work, The Madwoman in the Attic. Moving away from “madness” and toward “mental disability” in order to focus on how social logics and medical industrial systems produce mental disability, I argue for literary study as a way to better understand disability as a lived experience. I read Claudia Rankine’s poetry, Joyce Carol Oates’s and Dorothy Allison’s novels, and Amy Bloom’s and Esmé Weijun Wang’s short stories in order to investigate race, class, and sexuality across a range of feminine and nonbinary experiences with mental disability and neurodiversity in the contemporary era. I choose women as a primary category of analysis because they, in particular, have been hystericized, pathologized, and even incarcerated due to disabilities. These violences and inequities disproportionally affect women of color. I reveal how social logics, such as racism, and systems, such as the medical industrial complex, cause harm to those with mental illnesses and neurodivergencies. In some ways, mental disability may be an identity; in other ways, it may be a trauma; in other ways, it may be a stigmatizing force.

This in-depth qualitative, phenomenological (Smith & Fowler, 2009) research study attempted to understand the experiences of young adults with intellectual disability who had completed a 2-year, inclusive postsecondary education program. 13 participants (4 former students with ID, 5 parents, and 4 Postsecondary Education staff members) participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were coded to provide themes amongst each individual group of participants. A document review was also conducted to better understand the program components and add validity to self-reports from interviews. Results were analyzed and used to provide implications for future research and program development.

Young adults with disabilities face barriers that affect their financial capability and financial inclusion in the marketplace. Barriers include a lack of autonomy, skills, and opportunities. This mixed method strengths and needs assessment aimed to explain and explore the financial skills and goals of young adults with disabilities. A standardized scale captured young adults with disabilities financial skills, photovoice participatory action research documented their valued financial skills and goals, and semi-structured interviews notated parents financial aspirations and goals for their daughters and sons. The mixed methods analysis suggested young adults with disabilities underlying financial skills fell 25 percent below the average score among U.S. adults; valued financial skills and goals included their hobbies, talents, and continued education to pursue a livelihood; and parents aspired that their daughter or son acquired meaningful employment, independence to include financial independence, and money management skills.