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Although the policies and practices of special education are openly constructed around a premise of mobility and opportunity, students from low income backgrounds (‘at risk’ youth) are twice as likely to be labeled “special.” Moreover, of all the special educational categories, learning disabilities (a diagnosis deeply contested) account for the largest group of special educational students who are ‘at risk’ learners. This project is hinged on addressing how those students who are apparent beneficiaries of special educational policies and programs (evidenced by post-secondary enrolment) make meaning of their prior and current educational experiences in relation to special educational policies, services and programs. The author begins by theorizing that such disabilities may medicalize social problems while still preserving a veneer of equality. However, since not all labels have universal meanings when applied to specific social agents, they may both hinder and help some in gaining access to post secondary education. With the support of a group of four enrolled post secondary students located in the Canadian urban west-coast, who identify as learning disabled and the recipients of related interventions, this thesis provides a complex reading of the everyday that draws upon how the students’ specific cultural and material locations inform their understanding of education, ability, disability, meritocracy and normalcy. Collecting data through semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted during the Spring and Fall of 2007, the students actively engage and challenge the author’s original theoretical and methodological assumptions. Anticipating critiques of special education, the author is surprised by the students’ support of such programs. Expecting responses to interview questions to be based on a reading of meritocracy as normalcy and disability as deficit, these students weave understandings of meritocracy and normalcy to articulate their abilities without rejecting their disability labels. In terms of policy where the emphasis is placed on disability as deficit, the findings imply that policy-makers neglect the energy and labour students invest in emphasizing their abilities. For educators, this reveals an important pedagogy of inclusion by inverting assumptions that special educational students are ‘at risk’ of educational failure without unfolding the complex ways in which they actively demonstrate their abilities.

This qualitative study with a phenomenological approach explored the friendship experiences of adolescents with intellectual disabilities from their own perspective. Five adolescents with intellectual disabilities from Community Living Toronto were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide about the meaning, nature, formation, maintenance, and development of friendships. The interview questions were first pilot-tested with two adolescents with intellectual disabilities. The interviews were analyzed, and themes were identified. The findings indicated that these young people attached helping, trust, affection, intimacy, and companionship to the meaning of friendship. Participants identified friends as casual friends, best friends, buddies, and family friends. Adolescents with ID did not report intimate and reciprocated friendships with buddies and family friends. Disclosing secrets, personal information and feelings and receiving emotional support were limited only to relationships with best friends with disabilities, in their age group and from their classroom. Adolescents with ID indicated that they wanted more friends. The participants’ suggestions for friendship formation were to meet people, starting a conversation, and smiling. They also identified out of school contact, conflict resolution, and gift giving as the means for friendship maintenance. Giving help, having more contact, and secret sharing were suggested as strategies for friendship development from their perspective. / Thesis (Master, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2008-01-02 18:32:11.662

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No description available.

This grounded theory study explored Canadian nursing educators' perspectives of nursing students with disabilities. Seventeen faculty members from four western Canadian nursing education programs participated in semi-structured interviews. Data consisted of interview transcripts, demographic forms and field notes. Data analysis was conducted as described by Strauss and Corbin (1998). Transcribed interviews were examined using a fluid and dynamic process of examination of interviews, open coding, axial coding and selective coding. the theory of producing competent graduates emered from the data, with the central category being supporting students on the path to competent graduate. Producing competent graduates was described as a linear process, commencing when the students enter the program and culminating when they successfully complete their education. Participants believed studens with disabilities could become competent graduates. The educators' perspectives of these learnes was best captured by the term "wary challenge". Participants' perspectives of nursing students with disabilities were influenced by the context of nursing education programs, attributes of the nursing educator, perceived attributes of the environment and perceived student attributes. These attributes influenced how the educators worked with disabled students seeking to become competent graduates. Most learners were seen as proceeding along the path to competent graduate at a steady pace. Some students. both those with and those without disabilities, were identified as sometimes being at academic risk. Educators offered myriad supports, including developing reasonable accommodation for clinical courses. Most students returned to the path to competent graduate, while a few continued to experience difficulties. These situations compelled the nursing educators to engage in deep, deliberate consideration as they sought to balance the students' rights with the imperative of patient safety. The unique aspect of decision making when working with students with disabilities was "where do we draw the line". Recommendations for nursing education include improving faculty knowledge regarding disabilities and instituting clearer guidelines for developing and communicating accommodation in the clinical setting. Recommendations for future research include developing a better understanding of nursing educators' perspectives of disabilities and what influences those views.

Sudan has been at war for decades. As such, many research areas in Sudan have not been investigated. Disability is one of these areas. Although the little literature available indicates that Sudanese have negative attitudes towards disabled people, there is still lack of rich literature on how persons with disabilities are perceived in Sudan. The objective of this exploratory research is to start the process of understanding how people with disabilities in Sudan are perceived by engaging persons with disabilities in identifying barriers hindering them from participating in society and measures they think should be taken in order to overcome the identified barriers. Using a qualitative research design, four adults living with physical disabilities were interviewed. The data obtained was analyzed using a Key Theme Analysis Method. The findings from this study suggest that people with disabilities face many barriers that prevent them from participating in their society. These barriers include: negative stereotypes, unemployment, low economic status, sense of hopelessness, corruption and race and religious factors. I hope findings of this research paper adds to the existing body of literature and reminds disability activists and their allies worldwide the importance of collective efforts to fight against exclusion of disabled people in their respective societies.

Physiological interpersonal synchrony, the spontaneous alignment of indicators of physiological activity, is highly associated with the level of empathy between people in emotionally meaningful relationships. However, synchrony has not been studied with nonverbal, severely-disabled individuals, many of whom have a limited means to communicate. In this study, dyadic physiological synchrony in client-parent-therapist triads was quantified through simultaneously recording electrodermal activity, heart rate, cortical brain activity (client-parent only), and cortisol level. For the majority of the trials, a greater level of synchrony was observed in the client-parent dyads compared to the client-therapist dyads; however, the client-therapist dyads demonstrated an increased level of synchrony in the later trials. Electroencephalography analysis revealed widespread interbrain synchrony involving empathy-related regions. Our results suggest that even in the presence of disabilities, synchrony due to empathy exists and that the measurement of this synchrony may serve as a clinical adjunct to the self-report of interpersonal relationships.

Physiological interpersonal synchrony, the spontaneous alignment of indicators of physiological activity, is highly associated with the level of empathy between people in emotionally meaningful relationships. However, synchrony has not been studied with nonverbal, severely-disabled individuals, many of whom have a limited means to communicate. In this study, dyadic physiological synchrony in client-parent-therapist triads was quantified through simultaneously recording electrodermal activity, heart rate, cortical brain activity (client-parent only), and cortisol level. For the majority of the trials, a greater level of synchrony was observed in the client-parent dyads compared to the client-therapist dyads; however, the client-therapist dyads demonstrated an increased level of synchrony in the later trials. Electroencephalography analysis revealed widespread interbrain synchrony involving empathy-related regions. Our results suggest that even in the presence of disabilities, synchrony due to empathy exists and that the measurement of this synchrony may serve as a clinical adjunct to the self-report of interpersonal relationships.

The New Zealand historiography on intellectual disability has been expanded in the twenty years by histories of the residential institution and the foundation of advocacy groups. However, there is still a limited field of history regarding how the intellectually disabled were discussed in twentieth century New Zealand. This thesis will discuss how the identity of the intellectually disabled was constructed as a social category, through different discourses, in twentieth century New Zealand. It shall be argued that from 1900 to at least 1960 those who created medical, government and public discourse also maintained the power to create the identity of the intellectually disabled. This argument will take the form of a discourse analysis and will draw on both primary and secondary sources. The primary sources will include government documents, medical literature and newspaper content. The secondary sources will cover material which provides context, and / or which has discussed the construction of intellectual disability. It will be argued that discourses centred on an idea of a 'problem' within the intellectually disabled individual. Also, the medical discourse and 'medicalized' understandings of intellectual disability will be seen to influence public and government discourse. Further, a tension will be shown in these discourses between the desire to assist the intellectually disabled and their families, as well as to protect the New Zealand community from these people.