The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of health promotion for a group of young adult African American men with invisible disabilities. This hermeneutic phenomenological study used a non-experimental, descriptive design. The purposive sample consisted of 11 young adult, English-speaking, non-institutionalized, African American men with invisible disability between the ages of 25 and 39 years of age living in the Central Texas metropolitan area. This study's research questions were answered using audio-taped, one-on-one qualitative interviews along with detailed fieldnotes. Participants were interviewed twice at a mutually decided upon location to ensure the privacy and comfort of participants. For these young men, an essential component of health promotion involved the reestablishment and reorganization of their bodies in the world while adjusting to living with disability. For them, the essential structure of health promotion was comprised of the following themes: Reconciling Perspectives of the Self, Embracing the Current Body, and Reorienting the Body in the World. Their lived experience of health promotion was reflected in the following themes: Risking the Body to Preserve the Self, Accepting the Evolving Body, and Seeking the Body's Redemption. For this group of young adult African American men, their health promotion experience required risking the body, putting the needs of the self before the needs of the body, and then accepting and valuing the resulting condition of the body. / text

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Individuals with non-apparent, physical disabilities face unique social challenges from those that are encountered by the more visibly disabled. The absence of visible cues indicating physical impairment causes ambiguity in social situations, leaving the sufferer vulnerable to moral judgments and social sanctions when they are unable to embody and perform to cultural norms. This dynamic generates a closeted status that the individual must learn to navigate. Using Eve Sedgwick's "The Epistemology of the Closet," this paper deploys auto-ethnography, traditional ethnographic techniques, and literature reviews to illuminate a third space of functioning between the outwardly 'healthy' and the visibly disabled.

identity play an important role in how they communicate and interact with other individuals. One group in which identity construction and navigation is a difficult process is the hearing impaired population. In an effort to understand how these individuals construct their identity and navigate their hearing impairment, this study utilizes Communication Theory of Identity. Through the use of interactive interviews, the researcher was able to examine how 11 participants manage their identity as hearing impaired individuals. The interviews provided insight into the four layers of identity proposed by CTI – personal, relational, enacted, and communal – in the hearing impaired individual. The author discusses the themes within each of the four layers and the gaps present between the layers that emerged as the hearing impaired participants discussed how they navigate their hearing impairment. Furthermore, the implications of these themes and gaps within the hearing impaired individual’s identity, such as feeling disconnected from both the Deaf and hearing communities, are examined.

Enactment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 expanded and clarified the rights of students with disabilities in higher education (Connor, 2011; Pena, 2014; Troiano, 2003). In the past three decades, the enrollment rate of students with learning disabilities (LD) in higher education has tripled. However, the magnitude and quality of scholarship addressing the experiences of students with disabilities (including LD) does not reflect this exponential shift. While existing literature addresses dancers with physical and developmental disabilities (Kuppers, 2004; Sandahl & Auslander, 2005; Whatley, 2007, 2008) and children with learning disabilities (Cone & Cone, 2011), research on dancers with learning disabilities in postsecondary settings is nil. Research that includes the voices of identifying dancers with learning disabilities in higher education is necessary in order to discover more effective pathways and approaches to interventions and learning strategies. This qualitative study examines the perceptions of six dance majors and minors with learning disabilities (LD) in higher education dance programs from five universities located in the New York/New Jersey/Eastern Pennsylvania and Midwest regions of the United States. The purpose of the study is to privilege the voices and perspectives of an underrepresented population in dance in order to illuminate challenges, learning strategies, and experienced meanings within creating, learning, and performing dance in higher education. Qualitative sources of data include in-person interviews, non-participant observations, and participant reflective journals. Several rounds of coding and data analysis generated a multifaceted and nuanced portrait of six dancers with LDs’ challenges, strategies, and experienced meanings, both individual and composite, in higher education dance. Several described self-determined approaches through agentic acts of learning individualized to their unique LDs. For all dancers, emotional states undergirded challenges, strategies, and relationality in higher education dance. Further, descriptions of visibility, acceptance, and affirmation by peers and instructors in technique and composition classrooms illuminated the value of relational authenticity for these dancers. Research findings suggest areas in need of reformed practices while also illuminating extant teaching practices that effectively meet the needs of students, including the transparent integration of ameliorative strategies into higher education dance. Findings related to emotional challenges point to the importance of emotional support as a priority in higher education dance programs, a need that I suggest has become increasingly critical for all university dance students during this period of global pandemic. The study offers insight into the ways dance in higher education can be more accessible and inclusive by privileging the authority of the individual student and enabling authentic engagement with self and a broader relationality to different others. / Dance

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the changes to family dynamics that result from invisible symptoms of acquired brain injury The perspective put forth is that of individuals living with invisible symptoms of acquired brain injury. This study is based on a thematic analysis of the findings from nine semi-structured interviews with individuals (aged 24-64 yrs.; 6 men, 3 women) who have been formally diagnosed with an acquired brain injury. The data is interpreted and discussed using a critical framework, specifically, Critical Disability Theory. The findings from this analysis illustrate how invisible symptoms such as cognitive impairments, memory loss, mood changes etc., of acquired brain injury affect family dynamics in relation to emotional roles, domestic roles, financial roles, and perception and treatment of the affected individual. These changes were either exacerbated or minimized by the assumptions, misconceptions and knowledge level of the individual’s family in relation to understanding brain injury and the ways in which disability can manifest. Also important to family relations are the perceptions of participants that they must prove that they do have a disability; the roles healthcare professionals play in the validation of the injuries, both to the individual and the family; and how powerfully dominant constructions of disability – and invisible acquired brain injury in particular – are ingrained in social discourse and impact upon family dynamics for people living with invisible acquired brain injury. Lastly, an important part of this research is a compilation of recommendations put forth by the participants for healthcare professionals to keep in mind when working with individuals who either are suspected of having or have an acquired brain injury. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

In Canada mental health related concerns are estimated to cost the economy $20-$50 billion annually. 500,000 Canadian each week have to take time off of work because of a mental health disability. This study explores the experiences of people living with a mental health disability in the workplace. The goal is to provide an opportunity to highlight many of the obstacles they face every day. This study relies on qualitative methodologies, using semi-structured interviews to get a more detailed understanding of their experiences. This study not only highlights the perceptions, experience and challenges of people living with a mental health disability, it highlights coping strategies and suggestions for building mentally health workplaces. The participant’s personal narratives can help by providing a chance for a community to build and be used to challenge the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health. / October 2016

Despite the success illness novels have acquired in the last decade, the misrepresentation of chronic illness in the Young Adult genre is still going unnoticed. In an ableist society that still needs to be educated about invisible disabilities, most of the contemporary YA writers insist on finding miraculous solutions and questionable happy endings to their stories. The aim of this thesis is therefore to study the different ways in which YA writers fetishize and understate invisible disability and to find a way to subvert it. By focusing on the miracle cure trope and romanticization in the case of Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything, it attempts to highlight the characteristics of low-quality disability fiction and demonstrate why and how the use of disability biases can affect negatively both disabled and nondisabled young readers. In addition, through the scrutiny of the author’s first YA novel, Nothing Wrong with Snails, it then illustrates how the in-depth analysis of past disability literature improved the author’s personal craft and enabled them to portray chronic illness and invisible disability avoiding stereotypes, biases, and tropes. In conclusion, it argues that writers ought to rely on disability studies in order to reach higher standards in the representation of invisible disability in YA fiction.

Bien que l’inclusion des personnes avec un trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA) progresse dans le milieu professionnel, les études menées sur l’adaptation des processus de dotation pour ces dernières par les entreprises restent rares et n’ont pas été actualisées. L’objectif de ce mémoire est de comprendre les leviers et les freins apparaissant dans les moyennes et grandes entreprises privées canadiennes lors du processus de dotation pour les personnes présentant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA) sans déficience intellectuelle et sans ou avec légère altération du langage. Dans un contexte de pénurie et de volonté de diversification de la main-d'œuvre, les entreprises s’investissent dans l’inclusion des personnes avec un TSA. Néanmoins, l’accès à certains milieux professionnels reste encore très difficile pour ces personnes. Pour essayer de comprendre ce phénomène, la présente étude se base sur la théorie des biais cognitifs et des heuristiques qui influencent inconsciemment les actions et la prise de décision des recruteurs. Lors de cette étude exploratoire, une méthodologie qualitative avec des entretiens auprès d’un échantillon de douze individus a été appliquée auprès d’entreprises et de spécialistes. Les résultats de l’étude exploratoire et de la revue de littérature listeront des leviers et freins rencontrés tout au long du processus de dotation par les personnes présentant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme. L’analyse qui en découle proposera des solutions d’adaptation que les entreprises peuvent mettre en place dans leurs processus de dotation. / Although the inclusion of people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the workplace is increasing, studies on the adaptation of staffing processes for them by companies are still scarce and have not been updated. The objective of this thesis is to understand the levers and obstacles appearing in large Canadian private companies during the staffing process for people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability and without or with slight language impairment. In a context of shortage and desire to diversify the workforce, companies are investing in the inclusion of people with ASD. Nevertheless, access to certain professional environments remains very difficult for these people. To try to understand this phenomenon, this study is based on the theory of cognitive biases and heuristics that unconsciously influence the actions and decision-making of recruiters. In this exploratory study, a qualitative methodology with interviews of a sample of twelve individuals was applied to companies and specialists. The results of the exploratory study and the literature review will list the levers and obstacles encountered throughout the staffing process by people with autism spectrum disorders. The resulting analysis will propose adaptation solutions that companies can implement in their staffing processes.

Chronic illness and invisible disability are impactful contexts during emerging adulthood and the launching stage of the family life cycle (Beatty, 2011; Capelle, Visser, and Vosman, 2016; Young et al., 2010). The parent-child relationship is important to both developmental and health outcomes in families coping with chronic illness during emerging adulthood (Crandell, Sandelowski, Leeman, Haville, and Knafle, 2018; Fenton, Ferries, Ko, Javalkar, and Hooper, 2015; Waldboth, Patch, Mahrer-Imhaf, and Metcalfe, 2016). While informed clinical competency in counseling families experiencing disablement is a diversity-affirmative ethical imperative among psychotherapists (Mona et al., 2017), little is known in family therapy about how parents and emerging adult children experience launching with chronic illness. This qualitative study explored the parent-child dyadic experience of living with a chronic illness called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) during emerging adulthood. Seven dyads of parents and their emerging adult children with POTS were interviewed. Data analysis of in-depth interviews using Moustakas's (1994) transcendental phenomenology uncovered eight thematic clusters of meaning in the shared lived experience of POTS at the launching stage of the family life cycle. Clinical implications for family therapists were explored using Rolland's family system-illness (FSI) model of medical family therapy. Study limitations and future directions for further research were discussed. / Master of Science / More and more young adults are living with chronic illness. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a little-known chronic illness that tends to begin during adolescence. Like many health problems that disproportionately affect women, POTS is often overlooked by doctors. POTS symptoms, such as dizziness and cognitive difficulty, impact a person's ability to engage in preferred activities and identities. Family therapists can play an impactful role in supporting parents and children with POTS through developmental tasks related to launching an emerging adult in the context of this complex and widely misunderstood chronic illness. This thesis presented the first qualitative study of parent-child dyadic experiences living with POTS. Clinical implications for medical family therapy were highlighted. To construct an interview framework, Rolland's Family Systems-Illness (FSI) clinical model for helping families cope with illness and disability was used in conjunction with Arnett's description of emerging adulthood as a developmental stage in life. Seven parent-child dyads were interviewed for 1-2 hours in fourteen separate interviews generating transcripts about 140,000 words long in total. Analysis of these interviews identified shared themes composing the essence of the parent-child experience living with POTS during emerging adulthood. Results were described through tables and narratives. Clinical implications for family therapists working with parents and children with POTS during emerging adulthood were proposed. Limitations and ideas for future studies were discussed.