In today's climate of consumer consultation in the development of client sensitive hospital and community based services, some voices have remained silent. Among this group are disabled children and young people, who receive professional care in a climate of 'in their best interest', firmly based on notions of abnormality and the inherent tragedy of disability. New paradigm childhood research and the social model of disability provide the theoretical framework for this qualitative study into the health and health care experiences of disabled children and young people. Both approaches demand a flexible and participatory approach in order to challenge the traditional relations of research production. Twenty young people aged 9-18 years met with the researcher up to four times, with a choice after the initial meeting of individual or group meetings. All had a physical disability, some also had communication or learning difficulties. Conversations with the young people covered a range of topics. The obvious ones related to hospitals, appointments, splints and therapy. About what it is like having a carer. Commonly held assumptions that hospitalisation is a significant feature of disabled childhoods is challenged by the data, appointments however reflect an ongoing surveillance. The young people spoke of experiences of empowerment and of powerlessness within a triad of parent:professional:young person. Concern that many treatments are an experiment and that outcomes are hard to balance with the pain and inconvenience of surgery or therapeutic devices raises questions regarding professional versus young person's definitions of success. It also demands debate regarding how much remedial intervention is enough. This is a difficult issue in a medical and social climate that idealises normality, but normality is not often an option. Health care constitutes only a narrow perspective of health and made up only a part of the discussion. It is the day to day health experiences that are more prominent in the lives of participants than intermittent professional services. The young people showed a recognition of factors that contributed to their health and sense of well being. Commonly the talk was about living in a world that considers them as different and the effect that has on them. These young people are making links between racism and their own disability experience, however they have no contact with disabled adults, some with no other disabled young people and no understanding of disability history or politics. This lack became even more evident when the participants talked about who understands what their life is like, of role models, realistic aspirations and dreams for quiet moments. School issues raised concerns such as equity in access, being different, having to prove oneself, limited school sport involvement and issues of friendship and teasing. One very powerful finding is that just like anyone else they are all different but that stereotypes of disability limit the lives of disabled young people and influence the responses of other people to them. This demanded from the researcher an interaction with the different experiences and responses to experiences of participants or risk creating another, albeit different stereotype. / thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2001.

The Australian Disability Rights Movement (ADRM) developed slowly during the century, with a major spurt of growth in the 1980’s, resulting in the formation of two national advocacy organisations controlled by people with disabilities. This thesis uses the insider perspective of the researcher, feminist research methodology, review of relevant theory, and the views of self-selected board members to explore the history and common themes of the ADRM, and the relationship of these organisations to social change. Theoretical sources have been explored concerning past and present status of people with disabilities, new social movements, and second wave feminism. / Participants identifies individual experiences of disability and most felt the formation of such collective action groups had positive effects on social change. Respondents named major significant events in the achievement of disability rights, most naming the development of the two national organisations Disabled People’s International (Australia) (DPI(A) and Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) as essential to positive outcomes. / Sexism was experienced by most women involved in the more traditional organisation. This, and recognition of feminism, gave impetus to the formation of WWDA. / Opinion was divided about the best way the disability movement could continue without a peak body for both genders. The movement was perceived as ongoing, but less organised in its confrontation of challenges to the citizenship of people with disabilities posed by social and economic changes and governments’ weakening of the concept of advocacy.

The transfer of air travelers with disabilities between a mobility aid and an aircraft seat is a major source of injury for both the travelers and the airline personnel assisting in the transfer. The risk to both parties might be reduced through the biomechanical study of the transfer task. Such study requires that the contact forces acting on the body of the rear transferor be known, including the contact force between the rear transferor and the seat-back. A seat-back mounted force plate was designed and constructed to accurately measure the magnitude and the center of pressure location of normal forces applied to the seat-back. This force plate collects data from four preloaded single component force transducers. The force transducers are mechanically isolated from shear forces to protect them from damage. Testing of the force plate found a normal force magnitude accuracy of 0.19 %FS over the 890 Newton (200 lbf) calibrated range. The force plate was shown to have a horizontal and vertical center of pressure location accuracy of 2.66 and 1.58 millimeters (0.105 and 0.062 inches) RMS respectively over its 343 by 293 millimeter (13.5 by 11.5 inches) measurement range. By measuring forces that may have otherwise been ignored, the seat-back mounted force plate can improve the quality of the biomechanical analysis of aircraft transfers. / Graduation date: 2005

Thesis (M.Phys.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 60-63.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-241)

Thesis (M.S.L.T.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-84). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf [181]-194.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: James C. Galloway, Dept. of Physical Therapy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Feb. 3, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-78).

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-130).