Abstract The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive account of the experiences of two teachers with disabilities in order to report how disability influences them both personally and professionally. My research questions were as follows. Firstly, how do participants understand themselves as adults, adults with disabilities, and as adults with disabilities who are teachers? Secondly, how does disability contribute to their pedagogy and how do their experiences as educators contribute to their understanding of disability? Thirdly, for these teachers with disabilities, what is the nature of their relationships in both educational and workplace contexts? Fourthly, what is their perspective on accommodations? Finally, what is their advice to aspiring teachers who have disabilities, including myself? I conducted interviews that addressed these research concerns with two participants, both experienced teachers with self-identified disabilities. For data analysis, I used the method of constant comparison to create codes and find themes within the data collected from the interview, based on disability identity and self-advocacy theories. It is discussed that individuals with disabilities face unique identity-related challenges aside from the physical and mental aspects of having a disability. A key finding is that participants were shaped by prior experiences in childhood and in the education system that were related to their disability which now influence their teaching. Other findings include: their independence, resilience and ability to strategize led to their creation of their own accommodations: they found an environment that honoured their own strengths. Both teachers found that disclosing their own disability helped their students to better relate to them. However, at the same time, they were not as aware of accommodations for themselves as they were for their students. Teachers with disabilities serve an important role in schools as they are not only representatives of what inclusive societies can achieve: they also have unique experiences and skills that are an asset to their students. Recommendations to expand upon Gill’s (1997) disability integration model as well as to create more inclusive environments for teachers with disabilities are also discussed. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-28 00:52:34.69

This hermeneutical study interprets and describes the phenomena of ageing and living with disability. The lived experiences of 14 older men and the horizon of this researcher developed an understanding of what it is like for men to grow old and, for some, to live with the effects of a major disability. The study is grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and framed in the context of embodiment, masculinity, and narrative. I conducted multiple in-depth interviews with older men aged from 67 to 83 years of age. Seven of the participants had experienced a stroke and I was able to explore the phenomenon of disability with them. Through thematic and narrative analyses of the textual data interpretations were developed that identified common meanings and understandings of the phenomena of ageing and disability. These themes and narratives reveal that the men�s understandings are at odds with conventional negative views of ageing and disability. These older men are �alive and kicking�, they voice counternarratives to the dominant construction of ageing as decline and weakness, and have succeeded in remaking the lifeworld after stroke. Overall I have come to understand an overarching meaning of older men �working it out� as illustrative of a strong face of ageing and disability. Older men seek out opportunities to participate actively in community life and, despite the challenges of ageing and disability, lead significant and meaningful lives. These findings challenge and extend our limited understandings of men�s experiences of ageing and living with disability. This interpretation offers gendered directions for policy development, clinical practice, and future research.

This hermeneutical study interprets and describes the phenomena of ageing and living with disability. The lived experiences of 14 older men and the horizon of this researcher developed an understanding of what it is like for men to grow old and, for some, to live with the effects of a major disability. The study is grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and framed in the context of embodiment, masculinity, and narrative. I conducted multiple in-depth interviews with older men aged from 67 to 83 years of age. Seven of the participants had experienced a stroke and I was able to explore the phenomenon of disability with them. Through thematic and narrative analyses of the textual data interpretations were developed that identified common meanings and understandings of the phenomena of ageing and disability. These themes and narratives reveal that the men�s understandings are at odds with conventional negative views of ageing and disability. These older men are �alive and kicking�, they voice counternarratives to the dominant construction of ageing as decline and weakness, and have succeeded in remaking the lifeworld after stroke. Overall I have come to understand an overarching meaning of older men �working it out� as illustrative of a strong face of ageing and disability. Older men seek out opportunities to participate actively in community life and, despite the challenges of ageing and disability, lead significant and meaningful lives. These findings challenge and extend our limited understandings of men�s experiences of ageing and living with disability. This interpretation offers gendered directions for policy development, clinical practice, and future research.

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This research charts the long cultural trajectory of albinism from early modern travel encounters and Enlightenment exhibitions to medical classification and biological experimentation. It argues the whiteness of albinism functioned as a visible provocation to thinkers involved in work crucial to major conceptual developments in western science and medicine. It stresses this rare complexion was a prism through which medical and scientific researchers studied human variation, disease and inheritance. It examines how albinism paralleled a broader historical production of modern racial and pathological identities. T¬his research traces medico-scientific discourses in order to understand their affect on people diagnosed with albinism. It commences with analysis of ‘unusually white’ people in travel narratives and Enlightenment ephemera between 1650-1799. It bridges plural representations of ‘unusual whiteness’ as sub-human or racially distinct with the crystallisation from the 1770s of a pathological definition for ‘leucoethiopia’. It demonstrates circulation of medical case studies and the formal classification of albinism as congenital disease by medical men in 1822 reflected a far-reaching revolution in medical thought and practice across Europe. It links this medical paradigm shift with the rise of heredity theory from the 1850s. It argues widespread experimentation with albino animals supported fierce early twentieth-century debates among biologists about Mendel’s laws of heredity. It concludes with analysis of the dialectic between medical knowledge about albinism and ‘albino’ identities. It argues people with albinism both internalised and camouflaged medical associations with defect through the adoption of class privilege and individual social tactics. Overall, this research makes a significant claim to rethink the histories of race, disability and medicine. It spotlights albinism as a critical nexus to understand the making of the normal and the pathological body, and it pinpoints the unstable relationship between medical diagnosis and individual agency.

Career development and career planning are important for the transition of college students to the workforce. College students with disabilities encounter more challenges regardless of the education and career processes. These career development challenges include societal attitudes toward persons with disabilities, inaccessible accommodations, lack of social support, and ambivalent identities. These attributions may cause college students with disabilities to have lower career self-efficacy and outcome expectations, which in turn may lessen one’s motivation to engage in academia and career development (Gibbons, Justina, Cihak, Wright, & Mynatt, 2015). Hence, this study examined the influences of disability identity, ethnic identity, perceptions of career barriers, and social supports in career decision self-efficacy and outcome expectations of college students with disabilities. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey design and included a valid sample of 312 college students with disabilities at two universities, one Midwestern and one Southeastern. The most important predictor was social support, which uniquely explained 8.5% of the variation in career decision self-efficacy, β = .327, t(302) = 5.730, p < .001, controlling for other variables in the same regression model. The other significant predictors were ethnicity identity (β = .232, t(302) = 4.162, p < .001), disability identity (β = .158, t(302) = 2.897, p = .004), and male gender (β = -.098, t(302) = -1.994, p = .047). Accounting for 57.2% of the variance, career outcome expectation was explained by all seven predictor variables, disability identity, ethnicity identity, social support, perceived career barriers, career self-efficacy, ethnicity and gender. The most important predictor was career decision self-efficacy which uniquely explained 24.1% of the variation in career outcome expectation, β = .595, t(302) = 13.054, p < .001, controlling for other variables in the same regression model. The other significant predictors were ethnicity identity (β = .167, t(302) = 3.721, p < .001), and perceived career barriers (β = -.104, t(302) = -2.411, p = .017), controlling for other variables respectively. A significant relationship was found between career decision self-efficacy, ethnicity identity, and perceived career barriers with career outcome expectation of college students with disabilities. Moreover, Hispanic college students with disabilities reported positive ethnicity identity compared to European students. African and Asian college students with disabilities perceived more career barriers than their European counterparts. Finally, college students with acquired disabilities reported higher career outcome expectations than those with congenital disabilities. The results of this study provide faculty, administrators, disability support specialists, and career counselors in postsecondary institutions with the ability to recognize the needs and expectations of college students with disabilities. Also, constructing effective career services, fostering multicultural competencies, and promoting an inclusive campus climate would benefit college students with disabilities’ academic retention and career transitions to competitive employment.

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Given the increasing number of undergraduate students with psychiatric disabilities enrolling in college and the disproportionately high attrition rates among this group, it is important that researchers understand the experiences of these students and identify and address the barriers to higher education that face this population. While most college campuses make a number of modifications, accommodations, and services available to students with registered disabilities, researchers suggest that many students with psychiatric disabilities fail to either register or make effective use of such services. Research has found that the endorsement of disability identity impacts the proactive utilization of valuable academic accommodations and promotes students’ academic success. However, little is known about how disability identity is shaped and maintained within the context of college. Still, even less is known about the experiences of students with psychiatric disabilities or how they construct meaning pertaining to their disability within college. The current study explored the processes by which undergraduate students with psychiatric disabilities make meaning of their disability identity through interaction and participation within the college context. Furthermore, I explored students’ decisions regarding disability disclosure and the utilization of support services as one means of understanding a motivated action indicative of disability identity. I employed an interpretative phenomenological approach to gain insight into the perceptions, meaning making, and lived experiences of undergraduate college students with psychiatric disabilities regarding the contextualized construction of disability identity. The results of the analysis suggest that disability identity is dynamic and constructed through interactions with others and participation in various activities and experiences presented in the college environment. These findings contribute to the literature on identity formation in college students with psychiatric disabilities and provide important implications for theory, research, and practice. / Educational Psychology

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