Students attending charter schools, including those with learning disabilities, are subject to policies set by individual charter management organizations. One practice used within some charter schools is grade-level retention, or having students repeat a grade level. Literature overwhelmingly indicates that retention is associated with negative outcomes, yet the practice continues to be used. One particular charter school that uses a strict retention policy and retains students with learning disabilities was studied to understand how the process unfolds. Using the conceptual frameworks of critical disability theory and critical pedagogy, the study draws inferences regarding how this phenomenon blends with ableism and power imbalances. Six teachers (four general education and two special education teachers) participated in interviews for this qualitative case study. Through triangulation of findings from individual and group interviews, trends were identified. A major finding showed that although retention is conceptualized as beneficial for the school to threat unmotivated students, for students with learning disabilities, retention is still regarded as highly ineffective and harmful. Decision making factors used with students with disabilities include particular individual characteristics, such as abilities and parental support. Discussion into participants’ perception of students with disabilities as inferior, and how retention as punishment asserts the school’s power, follows a review of concepts, effectiveness, and decision-making factors related to retention. Implications for educators to improve inclusive and fair school policies, in addition to rethinking traditional methods of analyzing school practices are discussed. Further research in various educational initiatives and areas of study are summarized.

This sandwich thesis initiates a dialogue to examine connections and departures between new media studies, platform studies, critical digital race studies, critical disability studies, and feminist data studies. The manuscript presents four research papers that traverse issues regarding ableist platform governance, algorithmic visibility, and crip/neuroqueer digital cultural production. My theorizing of crip data seeks to interrupt hegemonic Western and Eurocentric conceptualizations of what is (not) valued and who (does not) holds power within platform spaces. Moreover, an intersectional focus on disability and race interrogates the ways technoableism (Shew, 2020) and algorithmic oppression (Noble, 2018) collectively animate the creation, development, and use of platforms and other new media technologies. I introduce crip data studies as an interdisciplinary academic and activist theoretical framework that counters the dominance of Western and Eurocentric ideologies that inform a digital platform’s algorithmic infrastructure, governance, and cultural production. I utilize the sandwich thesis model to examine the ways crip data can support critical/cultural investigations about platforms, power, disability, race, and culture through various case studies. In Chapter 1, I assess the relationship between race, disability, and bias in platform content moderation. Chapter 2 proposes neuroqueer practices for new media production and disability engagement that do not reproduce techno-solutionist measures in mediating neuroqueer self-expression and digital relationality. Chapters 3 and 4 communicate the generative departures of crip and neuroqueer platform use as a mode of hosting cultural production. In sum, this thesis engages with enmeshed inquiries regarding disability, race, and ideological value to respond to the following provocation: Is another platform– one beyond ableist, racist, and colonial bias– possible? / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis introduces crip data studies as a theoretical practice that challenges how dominant Western, Eurocentric conceptualizations of disability and race inform governance and cultural production on digital social platforms. I invoke crip, a subversive reclamation that reframes disability as a political and cultural identity, to disrupt the erasure and devaluation of disability within digital platforms. Through theorizing crip data, I reconfigure the disabled user and creator to investigate the significance of technological bias in shaping platform economies, politics, and creative engagement. The thesis project has two goals. First, crip data reveals how offline biases animate a platform’s algorithmic infrastructure and user interactions. Crip data also amplifies the creative, strategic practices shaping digital disability cultural production on social sharing and content creation platforms. In doing so, the manuscript demonstrates how crip data offers potentialities for intersectional readings beyond platformed mediations of ableism, racism, and coloniality.

Picturebooks with characters that have an intellectual disability provides an opportunity for children with and without disabilities of their own to identify with the story. The study examines a selection of five contemporary Swedish picturebooks for children that features characters with an intellectual disability. This study explores how ideologies of normalisation and inclusion influence the way these characters are presented and represented in text and imagery. Drawing from critical discourse analysis the aim of this text is to show if power relations in the story can provide different subject positions for the reading child to take. The results of the analysis show authentic and varied portrayals of characters with intellectual disability. There were two different kind of discourses on normality evident in the picture books: A child like everyone else and different like everyone else. The discourse of a child like everyone else means a perspective where the character with an intellectual disability is portrayed without a focus on the disability. This results in a normalization of the presence of a person with an intellectual disability but neglects to portray the specific experiences that character may have when it comes to their disability. The discourse of being different like everyone else gives a perspective on intellectual disability where difference is normal and part of everyday life. This perspective portrays disability and diversity as part of a normality.

This study sets out to explore the representations of disability in documentary films. Its starting point is that when such representations of disability films are under examination, one needs to take into consideration a level of complexities that come with disability, the construction and functionalities of representations, and more particularly the impact of documentary films on understanding disability. In order to address this issue, I draw upon disability theory and disability aesthetics, crip theory and crip willfulness, as well as practices of good looking, synthesising in this way a theoretical framework that responds to matters of intersectionality and criticality in relation to the analysis of representations of disability. To this end, I employ a mixed method design, which is based on participant observation, the methods of the written festival and a critical disability studies (crip) analysis for examining selected documentary films alongside a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews that were conducted with disabled viewers who attended the Emotion Pictures – Documentary and Disability Film Festival in Athens, Greece. Its findings indicate that representations of documentary films familiarise viewers with disability. This familiarisation and the development of political engagement by depicting crip killjoys are the key elements that create representations of a different context and meaning in comparison to those produced by media and fiction films. My analysis reveals that depictions of crip killjoys who are conscious of their political identity, speak out and take action are depictions that ask for political engagement. As such, they can produce good staring. Visibility and social dialogue are two of the benefits of disability film festivals that are highlighted by disabled viewers.

This is a time of expanding futures for transgender youth who are able to “buy time” by blocking puberty and transitioning young. Twenty years of clinical literature indicates that suppressing puberty can be lifesaving for trans youth, allowing them to avoid the distress and harm associated with transgender lives writ large. A growing number of “gender affirming” clinics now offer young trans people greater autonomy over their bodies, their futures, and their future bodies. Yet there remain troubling disparities, with indications that clinics are primarily serving white middle class trans youth and that autistic trans youth face delays. This thesis is a discourse analysis of 18 interviews with international health and mental health clinicians and 10 interviews with key stakeholders. Drawing from the literature of queer temporalities, sociological work on time and social power, queer and trans of colour critique, critical disability studies, critical autism studies, and transgender studies, I use an “interpretive repertoire” analysis to ask: How have puberty suppression and early gender transition become thinkable futures for trans youth? This thesis finds that the conditions of possibility that make early transition possible for some, are the same that foreclose it for others. The discourses of maturity and cognitive age, the expected “chrononormative” narrative, and the discourses of crisis and the “race against time”, each work to make outsiders of autistic and racialized trans youth in particular. While there is much to celebrate in the new futures available to trans youth, I argue that puberty blockers currently function as a “switchpoint” moving privileged trans youth onto a track toward even greater privilege, and widening the gap in life opportunities. This thesis introduces the concept of “the temporality of privilege” and calls for greater attention to the political implications augured by the contemporary scene of gender-affirming care for trans youth. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / We are in a time of expanding futures for transgender youth who are able to “buy time” by blocking puberty and transitioning to a new gender while young. Clinical research and literature suggest this as a lifesaving option for trans youth, allowing them to avoid distress and harm. Yet there remain troubling disparities with this treatment. Many clinics report they are primarily serving white middle class trans youth and there are some indications that autistic trans youth may be stalled or delayed in the process. I report on a discourse analysis of 18 interviews with health and mental health clinicians across six countries, in addition to 10 interviews with community level experts. I draw on a range of theory and an “interpretive repertoire” analysis to theorize how these futures become thinkable and possible for trans youth, while considering the political implications and unforeseen consequences for those youth unable to benefit.

Though an increasingly more common occurrence, digital mobile applications are not typically particularly accessible for people with visual impairment. This study investigates the difficulties and consequences faced by developers and visually impaired users when implementing and using accessibility features as well as highlighting the principal considerations when doing so. The thesis employs the two complementary theoretical frameworks Universal Design Theory (UDT) and Critical Disability Theory (CDT) to both capture the functional and social dimensions of accessibility within digital mobile applications. The thesis highlights a knowledge gap among developers and companies, which over time can lead to an accruement of accessibility tech debt and poor design choices. The significance of education and prioritization cannot be overstated, no matter the managerial level. When developing inclusive mobile applications that cater to a wide range of users, it is essential to reframe accessibility features as an investment rather than a cost. A deeper comprehension of the social structures that contribute to disabled people being excluded from the use of digital applications can be achieved in part by incorporating Critical Disability Theory into decision-making processes. This thesis illustrates how drawing inspiration from both UDT and CDT while prioritizing accessibility throughout whole companies can make it possible to create truly inclusive mobile applications.

This thesis analyzes the representation of disability in adaptations of Shakespeare’s Richard III in order to propose a theory of Prosthetic Adaptation. Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine’s film adaptation, and Patrick Warren’s manga adaptation, are closely read through the lenses of Adaptation Theory and Critical Disability Studies. Prosthetic Adaptation is the use and incorporation of disability in adapted texts in such a way that both the text and the portrayal/reading of the disability are mutually transformed. Close reading analysis is conducted with both Critical Disability Studies and Adaptation Studies lenses. The transformation of the texts and disability work together to push the boundaries of their genre/medium that they have been transformed into, using those broken boundaries to comment on disability itself. McKellen and Loncraine’s film uses archetypes of war films and shifts in tone to comment on the dangers of the disability stereotype and spectacle in film; Warren uses color and form to create a strong visual metaphor of the invisibility of disability to the able-bodied eye, commenting how disability is erased and removed from sociocultural context. It is through these commentaries that both the concept of disability and the texts themselves experience a broadening of potential meanings and a reshaping of boundaries.

The intent of this work is to explore how children, youth, and adults with disabilities are discriminated against in cultural systems, specifically the education system, and how the beliefs and structures encompassed in these systems create and recreate the phenomena of ableism. This study will explore the hegemony of ableism within school cultures by exposing prevailing discourses and the systems that enforce these discriminatory discourses and educational practices. Additionally, it will illustrate significant human rights infractions and discriminatory processes that keep disabled peoples throughout the world in states of marginalization and oppression. The analysis of this study shows resistance to the oppression of people with disabilities through the use of critical disability theory, legal theory, and social justice philosophy. In addition, the advancement of inclusive education as a human right is offered as a solution to the collective oppression and states of disenfranchisement that many disabled peoples experience. The exploration of moral and legal theory, equality jurisprudence, and libratory pedagogy will advance a collective human rights framework as an educational model for school cultures globally. This analysis will utilize an equality premise known as the right to belong to defend inclusive education as a fundamental human right. In support of this fundamental right, a theoretical base for inclusive pedagogies reveals how the deconstruction of hegemonic practices and, simultaneously, the development of transformative educational models of learning are necessary best practices in the pursuit of equality for all disabled students. This work concludes with recommendations for changes in educational leadership, philosophy, and research of education for disabled students.

The intent of this work is to explore how children, youth, and adults with disabilities are discriminated against in cultural systems, specifically the education system, and how the beliefs and structures encompassed in these systems create and recreate the phenomena of ableism. This study will explore the hegemony of ableism within school cultures by exposing prevailing discourses and the systems that enforce these discriminatory discourses and educational practices. Additionally, it will illustrate significant human rights infractions and discriminatory processes that keep disabled peoples throughout the world in states of marginalization and oppression. The analysis of this study shows resistance to the oppression of people with disabilities through the use of critical disability theory, legal theory, and social justice philosophy. In addition, the advancement of inclusive education as a human right is offered as a solution to the collective oppression and states of disenfranchisement that many disabled peoples experience. The exploration of moral and legal theory, equality jurisprudence, and libratory pedagogy will advance a collective human rights framework as an educational model for school cultures globally. This analysis will utilize an equality premise known as the right to belong to defend inclusive education as a fundamental human right. In support of this fundamental right, a theoretical base for inclusive pedagogies reveals how the deconstruction of hegemonic practices and, simultaneously, the development of transformative educational models of learning are necessary best practices in the pursuit of equality for all disabled students. This work concludes with recommendations for changes in educational leadership, philosophy, and research of education for disabled students.

As Richard Thomas writes, “there is nothing like Star Trek…Of all the universes of science fiction, the Star Trek universe is the most varied and extensive, and by all accounts the series is the most popular science fiction ever” (1). Ever growing (the latest Star Trek film will be released in Spring 2013) and embodied in hundreds of novels and slash fanfiction, decades of television and film, conventions, replicas, toys, and a complete Klingon language Star Trek is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. As Harrison et al argue in Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, the economic and cultural link embodied in the production of the Star Trek phenomena “more than anything else, perhaps, makes Star Trek a cultural production worth criticizing” (3). A utopian universe, Star Trek invites its audience to imagine a future of amicable human and alien life, often pictured without the ravages of racism, sexism, capitalism and poverty. However, beyond the pleasure of watching, I would ask what do the representations within Star Trek reveal about our popular culture? In essence, what are the values, meaning and beliefs about gender, race, sexuality and disability being communicated in the text? I will explore the ways that the Star Trek universe simultaneously encourages and discourages us from thinking about race, gender, sexuality and disability and their intersections. In other words, this work will examine the ways that representations of identity are challenged and reinforced by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. This work will situate Star Trek specifically within the science fiction genre and explore the importance of its utopian standpoint as a frame for representational politics. Following Inness, (1999), I argue that science fiction is particularly rich textual space to explore ideas of women and gender (104). As Sharona Ben-Tov suggests in The Artificial Paradise: Science Fiction and American Reality (1995) science fiction’s “position at a unique intersection of science and technology, mass media, popular culture, literature, and secular ritual” offers critical insight into social change (ctd. in Inness 104). I extend Inness and Ben-Tov here to assert that the ways in which science fiction’s rich and “synthetic language of metaphor” illustrate and re-envision contemporary gender roles also offers a re-imagination of assumptions regarding race, sexuality and disability (Inness 104). Extending current scholarship (Roberts 1999, Richards 1997, Gregory 2000, Bernardi 1998, Adare 2005, Greven 2009, Wagner and Lundeen 1998, Relke 2006, and Harrison et all 1996), I intend to break from traditions of dichotomous views of The Next Generation and Voyager as either essentially progressive or conservative. In this sense, I hope to complicate and question simplistic conclusions about Star Trek’s ideological centre. Moreover, as feminist media theorist Mia Consalvo notes, previous analyses of Star Trek have explored how the show constructs and comments on conceptions of gender and race as well as commenting on economic systems and political ideologies (2004). As such, my analysis intends to apply an intersectional approach as well as offer a ‘cripped’ (McRuer 2006) reading of Star Trek in order to provide a deeper understanding of how identities are represented both in science fiction and in popular culture. Both critical approaches – especially the emphasis on disability, sexuality and intersectional identities are largely ignored by past Trek readings. That is to say, while there is critical research on representations in Star Trek (Roberts 1999, Bernardi 1998) much of it is somewhat uni-dimensional in its analysis, focusing exclusively on gender or racialized representation and notably excluding dimensions of sexuality and ability. Moreover, as much of the writing on the Star Trek phenomena has focused on The Original Series (TOS) and The Next Generation this work will bring the same critical analysis to the Voyager series. To perform this research a feminist discourse analysis will be employed. While all seven seasons and 178 episodes of The Next Generation series as well as all seven seasons and 172 episodes of Voyager have been viewed particular episodes will be selected for their illustrative value.