Thesis (M.S.)--Indiana University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-53). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.S.)--Indiana University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-53).

The purpose of this study was to measure and compare athletes’ dietary intake to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data that represents individuals without intellectual disabilities (ID), and to determine the effect of living arrangements on dietary intake and diet quality of the athletes. Dietary intakes from the athletes’ three-day food records, previously collected in 2009, were analyzed using the Self Administered 24-hr Recall (ASA24). Results indicated individuals with ID have a poorer quality diet than Americans without ID. Overall, the lowest HEI-2005 score (e.g., poorest diet quality) was observed among the subjects who lived in the family home (41.4 ± 7.6) and the highest HEI-2005 score was observed among the subjects who lived in a group home (45.3 ± 6.4). Results show that the more food choice responsibility given to an individual with ID the lower the quality diet, and the less responsibility given to an individual with ID the higher the quality diet (p≤0.01). Determining the nutrient intake and diet quality of individuals with ID may help identify ways to reduce the rate of obesity in this population, and provide health professionals with information needed to develop appropriate educational efforts. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

The Swedish Sports Confederation is performing a large organisational change. The change involves transferring the sports that are administered by the Parasport Federation to the other national sports organisations (NSO). This way, athletes with disabilities will be included in other NSOs that are offering the same or similar sports, mainly for athletes without disabilities. This means new demands for the NSOs structures for the process, specifically regarding resources and distribution of them, availability, and special competence. The aim of this study was to examine this change process and what results this can bring within one of the receiving NSOs, The Swedish Floorball Federation. More specifically, this study has investigated obstacles, opportunities, and preparedness on club- and athlete-level through semi-structured interviews with representatives from clubs and athletes with and without disabilities. The results showed a low level of knowledge regarding the change and how it will be carried out, why it is implemented, and which effects it can bring. Many obstacles were identified such as adapting to new and unknown environments, providing teams with leaders and adjusting the clubs’ operations. An increased sense of belonging for people with disabilities was one of the identified opportunities. Another opportunity was that the process will lead to a better and more united sports movement where Swedish floorball will be one step closer to their vision on being “a sport for all – always”. The results were analysed through frame factor theory. Through this analysis, the conclusion is that floorball clubs follow and contain structures that are both enabling and limiting the inclusion process. For example, there are structures regarding knowledge about disabilities that create inaccurate ideas about athletes with disabilities and disability sports. This finding highlights a need for increased competence about disabilities to enable a process toward equal conditions for participation in sports. / Svensk idrottsrörelse står inför en stor organisationsförändring där Svenska Parasportförbundets idrotter ska föras över till mottagande specialidrottsförbund. Idrottare med funktionsnedsättning ska därmed inkluderas i de övriga specialidrottsförbundens ordinarie verksamheter. Detta innebär att krav ställs på specialidrottsförbundens strukturer för mottagande gällande resursfördelning, tillgänglighet och specialkompetens. Studiens syfte var att undersöka beredskap för förändringsprocessen och vilka utmaningar och möjligheter den kan föra med sig inom ett av de mottagande specialidrottsförbunden, Svenska Innebandyförbundet. Denna kvalitativa studie har undersökt utmaningar, möjligheter och beredskap gällande processen på föreningsnivå genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med föreningsrepresentanter och aktiva utövare med och utan funktionsnedsättning. Resultatet visade på en låg kunskap om förändringen och hur den ska ske, varför den ska ske, och vilka effekter den kan medföra. Flertalet utmaningar identifieras i form av bland annat ledarförsörjning, anpassningar av verksamhet och rädsla för förändring och nya miljöer. De möjligheter som förändringen anses generera är bland annat ökad känsla av tillhörighet för personer med funktionsnedsättning, ökad acceptans för olikheter bland samtliga i samhället och en bättre och mer enad idrottsrörelse. Inkluderingen ses även som ett steg mot att nå svensk innebandys vision om att vara ”folksporten för alla – alltid”. Resultatet analyserades utifrån ramfaktorteorin med slutsatsen att föreningsidrotten innehåller och följer strukturer som både begränsar och möjliggör inkluderingsprocessen. Exempelvis finns strukturer gällande kunskap om funktionsnedsättningar som skapar felaktiga föreställningar om utövare med funktionsnedsättning och deras idrottande. Detta resultat synliggör ett behov av ökad kompetens om funktionsnedsättningar för att realisera en process mot likvärdiga villkor inom idrott.

This thesis explores representations of Paralympians within media and advertising. Scholarly research on disability is extremely limited, with current research focusing on print media, and few studies going as far as to perform a discourse analysis. Media representations play a prevalent role in constructing “disability” and have the power to define what it means to be a disabled person. Using a poststructural theoretical framework, I undertake a critical discourse analysis of television advertisements produced by Nike and Visa to uncover what narratives regarding disability are circulating with regularity. I find these advertisements featuring Paralympians serve to reproduce the myth of the “supercrip”, failing to acknowledge the complexity of individual experiences of those living with disabilities. Further, the simultaneous celebration and marginalization of Paralympians, a key dialectic found within these advertisements is indicative of a larger polemics circulating with regularity regarding people with disabilities within our increasingly neoliberal society. / v, 117 leaves ; 29 cm

The purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Healthy Athlete® Health Promotion questionnaire as an instrument to assess the true dietary habits of Delaware County, Indiana, Special Olympics Athletes. A total of 35 Delaware County Special Olympics athletes completed this study. The athletes’ true dietary habits were estimated using a three-day food record and the Caregiver Questionnaire (CQ). Results indicated the Healthy Athletes Software (HAS) nutrition questions lacked statistical strength in both reliability and validity. The test-retest indicated only one-third of the questions were identified as reliable (Kappa ranged from 0.347 to 0.773; r ranged from 0.356 to 0.794). When compared to the standard, only three of the 15 food items on the HAS questionnaire had a significant relationship to the standard (r coefficients ranged from 0.458 to .777). In contrast, 11 of the 15 food items on the CQ were highly correlated with the three-day food record. The results of this study indicate the need for improvement to make to the HAS nutrition questions more reliable and valid in the assessment of Special Olympics athletes’ dietary habits / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Disability rights laws in the United States have been designed to promote integration through a “mainstreaming” model—integrating disabled people into mainstream society. In contrast, this dissertation documents and analyzes the emergence of a different integration model—inverse integration—which involves situations in which nondisabled people enter disability-focused settings or participate in disability-focused activities. As this dissertation demonstrates, inverse integration is surprisingly popular. For example, in contemporary U.S. society, nondisabled students study in “special education” programs, nondisabled people reside in housing projects for disabled individuals, hearing actors perform in Deaf theatres, and nondisabled athletes compete in wheelchair sports. By looking outside the mainstream, this dissertation tests the normative underpinnings of conventional integration. For example, by analyzing the integration of nondisabled children into special education classrooms, the dissertation provides an explanation for why interactions between disabled and nondisabled students in schools have so far failed to shift attitudes toward disability. Similarly, by examining the reasons behind nondisabled people’s desire to play wheelchair basketball or learn sign language, it sheds new light on disability rights law’s limitations in promoting relationships. Finally, by pointing to the differing ways in which elite sports organizations treat athletes’ physical injuries, on one hand, and mental health issues, on the other, this dissertation exposes another angle of the stigma surrounding mental health in the mainstream discourse. In terms of methodology, this dissertation has taken a socio-legal approach, using empirical and theoretical work in the areas of sociology, anthropology, history, and social psychology. In one chapter, I conducted an empirical study (systematic content analysis) of legal decisions. Influenced by disability studies, this dissertation has also drawn upon the personal experiences of disabled people and references memoirs of disabled athletes, scholars, and activists, as well as personal narratives featured in blog posts, op-eds, and legal scholarship. The dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first chapter, Reversing Reverse Mainstreaming, documents and criticizes the practice of “reverse mainstreaming,” whereby nondisabled children are integrated into classes for disabled students. Using a historical account and systematic analysis of hundreds of administrative decisions, this chapter describes the circumstances that gave rise to reverse mainstreaming and analyzes the practice’s normative underpinnings. In doing so, this chapter exposes a conundrum: On one hand, educators and judges have long justified reverse mainstreaming by pointing to its potential to reduce prejudice through structured interactions between disabled and nondisabled students. On the other hand, reverse mainstreaming often treats disabled students as inferior to their nondisabled peers and imposes mainstream norms at the expense of disability culture. Thus, rather than reducing prejudice, such structured interactions may perpetuate the very stigma and misconceptions they are designed to eradicate. Moreover, as this chapter details, reverse mainstreaming can lead to distributional inequality when it comes to scarce resources. Combining insights from social psychology and disability studies, this chapter proposes guidelines for legal and policy reform aimed at ensuring that intergroup interactions in educational settings take more egalitarian forms. The second chapter, Inverse Integration and the Relational Deficit of Disability Rights Law, takes a broader perspective. It develops a typology of inverse integration practices and analyzes the interaction of such practices with existing U.S. disability law. It shows that legal and social norms generally hinder the involvement of nondisabled people in disabled spaces or activities. Against this backdrop, the seeming popularity of inverse integration is a puzzle. What is driving this practice? The answer has to do with relationships. Combining insights from sociology, anthropology, social psychology, disability studies, and law, this chapter demonstrates how inverse integration allows disabled and nondisabled people to share experiences, interests, and common language with family members, friends, and intimate partners. These interactive features of inverse integration stand in stark contrast to disability rights laws’ general failure to protect, facilitate, and reinforce interpersonal relationships. In a society where in-person interactions are becoming less and less common, these relational advantages of inverse integration seem particularly exigent. Drawing upon instances of inverse integration, this chapter imagines what a more relational disability rights regime would look like and proposes specific interventions. The third chapter, Gambling on disability Rights, identifies a barrier for inclusion of disabled athletes in elite sports: the regulation of sports betting. It argues that recently adopted rules of elite sports organizations, which ban the disclosure of material information that might be used for betting (“anti-tipping rules”), have a detrimental effect on athletes with psychosocial impairments (e.g., general anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder). Because psychosocial impairments may significantly affect the ability of athletes to perform at the highest levels, anti-tipping rules prohibit athletes from disclosing their impairments. This forced secrecy, in turn, may adversely affect athletes’ mental health and might prevent them from claiming protections to which they are entitled under disability rights laws. Perhaps most importantly, given that athletes are public figures who serve as role models for many, these rules might perpetuate the stigma surrounding mental health in society at large. The chapter proposes strategies to resolve this problem by drawing on the rule against insider trading in securities law.

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

O presente trabalho apresenta o processo de produção do livro-reportagem Guerreiras: histórias de mulheres para-atletas nunca antes contadas. A obra compõe-se de perfis de cinco para-atletas da cidade de Uberlândia. Amanda Sousa do halterofilismo; Daniele Martins da bocha; Gisele Ferreira do goalball; Joana Silva do atletismo e Laila Suzigan da natação são as protagonistas do livro-reportagem. Guerreiras tem como objetivo ser um espaço de divulgação do trabalho das esportistas, visando o empoderamento das pessoas com deficiência que são invisíveis à nossa grande mídia. / This work aims to show the production process of the reporting book Guerreiras: histórias de mulheres para-atletas nunca antes contadas. The work is based in five para-athletes profiles: Amanda Sousa (Weighlifting); Daniele Martins (Boccia); Gisele Ferreira (Goalball); Joana Silva (Athletisme) and Laila Sozigan (Swimming) are the protagonists from the reporting book. Guerreiras:has as objective to be an disclosure space of these athletes work aiming the disabled people empowerment that are invisible to our big media. / Dissertação (Mestrado)