Brain injury has become a more topical issue over the past decade, however limited research has been done on experiences of university students and few are specific to female students. The research question became: “How has having an acquired brain injury impacted the experience of female students within postsecondary education?” Narrative and auto-ethnographic methodologies were employed; semi-structured interviews with five participants were conducted, and text boxes were utilized to weave the researcher’s voice as a student with a brain injury into the narrative. Findings indicate brain injury has diverse implications depending on severity. Some participants spoke of accessing (dis)Ability resource centres, while others did not utilize formal accommodations. Findings revealed that participants navigate the academy in isolation yet wanted to connect with fellow students who have acquired brain injuries. Social workers can facilitate this process and provide counselling, challenge negative social implications and work toward building an inclusive educational environment.

Since the inception of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act of 1998 by the United States Congress, there has been limited research conducted on parental notification policies on campuses of Higher Education concerning alcohol and drug offenses committed by students. This study surveyed parents of incoming freshmen at the University of North Texas regarding their perceptions of Parental Notification policies and their perceptions of underage alcohol offenses by gender, age, ethnicity, and parental status. The relationship between parental notification and underage alcohol offenses was also examined. This study, conducted in the summer of 2002, at the University of North Texas had 539 respondents. An instrument developed to determine parental perceptions of underage alcohol use and parental notification consisted of 20 dichotomous questions. Chi-square tests of independence were used to analyze the data because it could calculate the relationships between two sets of nominal data. Data show that most parents want to be notified in all situations involving underage alcohol offenses and their offspring. Generally, parents do not believe their offspring will use alcohol underage as they enter college and that they are not binge drinkers. Females want to be notified about their student's underage alcohol offenses at a higher rate than males. Males want to be notified at a higher rate than females if using alcohol jeopardizes housing or enrollment in school for their student. Native Americans have great concern for their students in all areas of alcohol use and binge drinking. Parents should stay actively involved in the lives of their offspring as they attend institutions of higher education as well as stay involved with the University community in which their student attends.

This study expands on the current literature base that investigates the use of voice recognition software (VRS) as a compensatory strategy for written language difficulties often experienced by postsecondary education students receiving services under the category of learning disabled. The current literature base is limited to one study (Higgins & Raskind, 1995) which found that subjects' writing samples, completed with VRS, had higher holistic scores than the samples completed with a transcriber, and without assistance. While these findings are positive many questions remain unanswered. The research conducted in this dissertation investigated three such questions. The questions and corresponding findings follow. 1. After being trained on VRS will persons, in postsecondary education, receiving services under the category of learning disabled, continue to use it to complete their academic course work? Will they further use the software for purposes other than academic study? Two individuals continued to use the software. One of these two used the software for multiple purposes. 2. Does the ongoing use of VRS, by postsecondary education students receiving services under the category of learning disabled, improve their written performance when assessed with Fry's Readability Graph? Two subjects each submitted three writing samples: one completed without the use of VRS and two completed using VRS. One subject's grade level equivalency went from 4.5 (sample completed without using VRS) to 6.5 (samples completed using VRS). There was no change in the grade level equivalency of the writing samples for the second subject. 3. What are the contributing variables that influence the continued use, or non-use, of VRS by postsecondary education students receiving services under the category of learning disabled? Numerous variables emerged from the data including: time, access to a personal computer, ease of use, personal issues, use of standard English, the specific limitations associated with a persons disability, whether or not the subjects had other compensatory strategies in place, and the acquisition of the skills necessary to use the software. The findings contribute to the field by providing a framework from which to assess who mayor may not benefit from the use of VRS.