As a dyslexic child, I always had trouble finding my voice. It's hard to express yourself in words, when you struggle with them. For me words always come later when I write. But most people don't understand how I feel. If your synapses fire off at the right time how can you image what it would be like it they didn't? That's where fiction comes in. If you can override someone's lack of experience with the use of a metaphor, then by distancing the reader from reality with an allegory, you can get to truth that's hard to capture any other way. You can also simply tell the truth in your writing with plain nonfiction. For me, fiction and nonfiction are a way for me to claim my voice and convey truth. Only a reader can decided what that truth looks like.

In Canada, women with disabilities are an understudied group when it comes to sexual and reproductive health. Specifically, there is no clarity about women living with disabilities’ knowledge of and experience with contraception in Canada. Contraception refers to methods used to prevent pregnancy. Research has shown that the rate of adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes is higher among youth with disabilities, a group comprising approximately 1 in 7 Canadian over 15 years of age. This study aimed to understand better adolescent and young adult women (13-26 years of age) with disabilities’ knowledge of and experiences with contraception in Ontario by launching an online survey and conducting semi-structured interviews. The findings show that revisions to service models and healthcare attitudes towards sexually active women with disabilities are necessary. This study recommends that sexual education be revised to include people with disabilities, people of different sexual orientations, and equality between men and women’s reproductive responsibility

As current treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) do not prevent the accumulation of long-term disability, researchers and persons with MS are interested in wellness behaviours and how they may be used to manage MS. This thesis includes a review of the literature on wellness-based interventions in persons with progressive MS. Following this review, a cross-sectional study was conducted to characterize dietary intake by disability status in this population, and to examine the functional and symptomatic correlates of dietary behaviours. Participants with MS and matched controls completed questionnaires and a three-day food intake record. There were significant differences in dietary intake with and without supplements between the MS and control groups. Correlates of dietary behaviours were also examined. Further research examining dietary intake in MS is necessary to understand how disability and other factors impact dietary intake behaviours, and which other correlates may be useful targets for future nutrition interventions.

Background: Intellectual disability (ID) is described as a neurodevelopmental disorder which occurs during the developmental period and impacts intellectual as well as adaptive functioning across social, cognitive and practical domains. Approximately 3 percent of the South African population has mild to severe forms of ID. It is well described that caregivers of children with ID and other developmental disorders have higher levels of stress related to caring for their child than parents with typically developing children. However, little research has been reported in the South African context. Objectives: 1. To determine the nature and extent of self-reported symptoms of stress in caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities. 2. To establish which demographic variables and child factors are associated with carer stress. 3. To compare the nature and extent of self-reported stress and demographic and child variables associated with stress in carers of children with intellectual disability with the same measures reported by carers whose children are developing typically. Methods: This was a purposive, descriptive analytical study. Participants were 59 caregivers whose children attended Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital outpatient clinics. The ID group comprised 35 caregivers of children with ID. The control Non-ID group had 24 caregivers of typically developing children. The children’s ages ranged from 2 to 10 years. Caregivers were administered a set of four questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire; the Parent Stress Index; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist that rated the children’s behaviour. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS. Results: Both the ID and Non-ID groups showed elevated scores for self-reported anxiety. The ID group of caregivers reported significantly more problem behaviours in their children than the caregivers in the Non-ID group. Hyperactive behaviour predicted for depression in the caregiver ID group which also reported higher levels of stress and significantly higher levels of depression than the Non-ID group. 49 percent of the ID group caregivers reported levels of depression in the clinical range. Further, the ID group reported significantly more financial difficulties and also more appointments for their child at health facilities than the control group. Conclusion: Carers in this study setting experienced similar stresses and described similar child behavioural problems as those reported internationally. A significant finding was the high rate of caregivers of children with ID whose depression scores were in the clinical range. Child behaviour was a significant factor associated with caregiver stress and anxiety in both study groups and with depression in caregivers of children with ID. The study findings have implications for the mental health and behavioural support needs of both caregivers of typically developing children and caregivers of children with ID and for a range of services that provide this support.

There is a dearth of literature about the lived experiences of hearing children of Deaf adults (CODAs) within the South African context that this study attempts to address. Most African publications examining issues of Deafness focus on the experience of Deaf people themselves. Not much attention is given to the fact that children of Deaf adults may have their own experiences which are tied to the Deafness of their parents. Through a critical examination of my own experiences as a CODA, I sought to answer the following question: In which ways has my position in my family as a CODA, my identification as a Coloured person, my gender, and the context of Apartheid South Africa influenced my sense of self? Aim: The aim of the study is to provide the reader with rich, first-person information regarding the social, political and cultural circumstances of my formative years, in the context of being female, coloured, and having parents who are Deaf, against the backdrop of the South Africa of the 1980s. I draw attention to the intersections within my life as a bicultural, Coloured female in South Africa. Using a qualitative research method, auto-ethnography (specifically an evocative ethnographic method) to generate and analyse data, I endeavour to connect my story to wider cultural, political and social processes. The analysis was informed by literature from d/Deaf studies and a conceptual framework that included models of disability, the notion of intersectionality, and theoretical ideas concerning identity formation. Objectives: I explore: i) the key elements of context that combined to shape my experience of being raised as a CODA; ii) my experiences of identity formation; iii) the ways in which the intersection of various social life attributes that include race, gender, bicultural identity, and disability have intersected to frame my lifeworld as a CODA. Methodology: I used the auto-ethnographic approach and specifically, evocative autoethnography. I drew upon the thematic analysis method to analyse the data. Findings: The auto-ethnographic material depicts my lived experience as a CODA. A key finding relates to bicultural identity formation in a context of South Africa that has been profoundly shaped by Apartheid. While negotiating a terrain that is characterised by rampant racial discrimination and the difficulties that surround an identity that is both of the Deaf and hearing worlds, my story shows up a number of active responses to my life-world, rather than a passive acceptance and internalisation of its contradictions. Conclusion: This study supports the use of auto-ethnography as a way of exploring the experience of identity formation in CODAs in a context where the ambiguities of life as a CODA are complicated by identity intersections with race, gender and culture.

The purpose of this study was to explore the demographic variables, typical vocational services, and competitive employment rates of older workers, ages 40 - 69 years of age, with disabilities using the RSA-911 database. The results describe the types of services received and the competitive employment outcomes for state and federal vocational rehabilitation consumers receiving services in 2009. Furthermore the sample of older workers (N = 1,152) was equally stratified into three age groups. Older workers, aged 60 to 69, had higher levels of education, received more types of vocational services, and were competitively employed at a much higher rate than those in the other age groups. The methods, discussion, study limitations, and recommendations for future research are presented.

Historically, disabled people have not been viewed as innovators of humor because disability is associated with tragedy. My dissertation challenged the association of disability with tragedy by positioning disabled comedians as educators and ambassadors of disability rights. I reviewed the literature on disability and humor as well as disability oppression, which disability humor challenges. I used phenomenology as well as culturally responsive methodologies to examine what disabled comedians are achieving with their humor and what nondisabled audience members learned from attending their performances. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning was used to examine learning outcomes for audience members. I examined historical and contemporary Black humor, which is much older than disability humor in order to investigate what may be the future of disability humor.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of teachers’ experiences as they work with students who have the label of autism and ED in the same self-contained classroom. For this study, three main theoretical perspectives guided the researcher’s approach to understanding participant perceptions. This study used social constructivism, self-efficacy, and attribution theory to explore special education teachers’ perceptions. Study design included semi-structured interviews, multiple observations, and examination of artifacts of four participants working within self-contained classrooms. Both within case analysis and cross-case analysis was utilized to examine perceptions and attributions. These methods gave a voice to study participants by illustrating how they made meaning of teaching their students. Portraiture, as a tool, presented rich and thick descriptions of the participants as well as methodological approach for data collection. This study revealed obvious distinctions in how participants perceived causes of behavior, how participants described behaviors, and how they responded to student behaviors. Findings suggest participants attribute external factors to negative behaviors displayed by students with a label of ED. Findings suggest participants attribute the same negative behaviors to internal facts for students with a label of autism. Responses were driven by participants understanding of disability. Participant responses suggested participants used their perceptions of what external factors caused behaviors to rationalize negative student behaviors and used the same external factors to drive a therapeutic lens to address and move past these behaviors for students with labels of ED. Participants response to behaviors for students with autism were not attributed to external factors. Individual portraits highlighted how participants expressed student behaviors differently for students with an ED label in comparison to an autism label. There is little research on the experience of teachers who work with students with an ED label and autistic label in the same classroom. This research provided unique insight on how participants perceive these students and how they attribute aggressive behaviors to these disability categories. This study serves as a platform for future research exploring teacher perceptions of students with labels of ED and autism and how to support them in the classroom.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty Of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University Of Zululand, 2017 / Disability and poverty can no longer be denied as being some of the major factors that affect a number of people across South Africa and other developing, or even developed countries. Yet, disability and poverty are still ill-defined and under researched. South Africa has developed an income system aimed at helping people with disabilities: The Disability Cash Transfer (DCT). Physical and mental conditions of people with disabilities vary from one person to another, which means that the type of care they require as they grow older is also different. Therefore, people with disabilities constantly require financial care and societal acceptance. This is why the South African government provides DCT for people with disabilities who cannot perform any formal work as a way to generate income for themselves. This study seeks to evaluate if the DCT has an effect on people’s lives, with regards to poverty reduction, within Nqutu Local Municipality. Based on the Nqutu Local Municipality Integrated Development Plan First review (2013/2014:6), the estimated dependency ratio on social grants is 90.60%. The Disability Cash Transfer is within that estimated percentage. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was obtained using questionnaires and interview schedules. The research instruments that were employed in this study to collect data from beneficiaries of DCT were questionnaires, and to gather information from SASSA officials, interview schedules were used. The study target population were the beneficiaries of DCT as well as SASSA officials of Nqutu Local Municipality. To sample DCT beneficiaries, convenience sampling was used, and to select SASSA officials, simple random sampling was employed. This researcher managed to get 73 DCT beneficiaries and 8 SASSA officials. Content analysis was used to analyse interview schedules, in which all SASSA officials expressed that DCT does have an effect on poverty reduction. To analyse questionnaires descriptive analysis and the statistics program (SPSS) was used. The findings of the study reveal that although the DCT may be satisfactory, there is a necessity for implementers to re-evaluate current operations to avoid the exclusion and inclusion errors that exist in the DCT distribution. Therefore, it is prudent for the government, community members, and SASSA to work concurrently into introducing new strategies that will strip off distribution errors and mitigate poverty. Findings, further exhibited that 91.78% respondents believe that the DCT has effects at Nqutu Local Municipality because beneficiaries are able to provide essential needs for their families. A high number of respondents 57.53% mentioned that there are challenges in the DCT distribution. These challenges were found to be the result of the imperfection of the system as it appeared the DCT beneficiaries would sometimes not receive full amount of their grant. It is recommended that the Department of Social Development working together with SASSA revisit the distribution procedure to avoid fraudulent activities that the DCT beneficiaries experience. To reduce poverty people with disabilities should also be given employment opportunities equal to people with no disabilities as a way to reduce a dependency ratio to social grants. / National Research Foundation Of South Africa

Abstract In Guyana, a developing country in South America, many parental caregivers of disabled people struggle to understand their children's disability as well as provide, and advocate for, educational resources and medical and psychological care for their children. The researchers have found that the needs of this population have been minimized placing disabled people at risk for neglect, abuse, and death. In 2006, the Convention on the Rights for People with Disabilities created a plan to help developing countries improve the care and advocacy for people with disabilities. The purpose of this evaluative study, which was guided by general systems theory, was to examine and assess whether the Community Based Rehabilitation Program serves caregivers of the disabled population in Guyana effectively, identify the positive and negative aspects of the program, and recommend improvements to the program. Qualitative research methods were used. Surveys and interviews were administered to 73 caregivers of disabled people. Data were analyzed using triangulation strategies for data verification to identify specific themes. The findings of this study indicated that caregivers of people with disabilities are in dire need of educational resources, support groups, and training. They also suggested that when provided relevant information, caregivers tend to feel more empowered to serve as agents of care for their disabled children. Results from the study may spur policy makers to implement relevant training for Guyanese caregivers and provide them with necessary resources, which may lead to improvements in the lives of disabled people in Guyana and the possibility for social justice.