Ethical respect for others is central to culturally-responsive teaching. While a variety of research in higher education has examined the use of narratives to foster ethical respect for different cultural groups, there has been little research on using narratives to foster an ethical respect for people with disabilities. Two questions informed this study: (1) What kinds of disability narratives are available? and (2) What kinds of narratives are used in pre-professional education? Question 1 was addressed by drawing on an examination of the scholarship of other culturally adjacent categories and content analysis conducted on the descriptions of a small sample of seventeen disability-related narratives from across a wide range, for example graphic novels, and fiction such as kid-lit, young adult lit, and adult literature and so on. That analysis established that the historically dominant framing of disability is the pathography, a narrative that focuses on medical diagnoses, problematizes disability and focuses on reductive limitations. Two genres speak to the dominant pathologized framing: inclusion literature and illness narratives. Two counter-narratives embody what it is to experience the body/mind with this particular disability: somebody narratives which are written by individuals with disabilities, and caregiver narratives which discuss the proximate lived experience of an intimate, ally, or caregiver. Within these four classes of narratives, 16 discrete sub-genres were identified as a proposed disability-genre taxonomy. Question 2 was addressed by an employing the genre taxonomy to examine of a sample of nine syllabi and 98 narratives from courses designed for pre-professionals in the field of disability. Two additional subgenres were identified for a total of 17 discrete subgenres. Analysis revealed that narratives appear to be chosen on the basis of authors’ lived experience of disability. Of the seventeen possible genres from which to choose, 80% of the narratives were of one of four genres: endure accept or accommodate illness narratives, protest narratives, liberatory narratives, and self-revealing narratives. Understanding the range of disability-related genres that are available and used will allow researchers to do more nuanced analyses of how narratives are taken up by pre-professionals, will allow professors to make more informed decisions about their curricular choices, and presents new models by which professionals can encourage self-narrative texts written by individuals with disabilities. / Educational Leadership

Dyslexia can benefit an actor, especially if the individual is aware of how the challenges and advantages of dyslexia impact their personal acting process. Dyslexia is widely understood to be a learning disability that affects an individual's reading and writing abilities. Many forms of theater rely on the written word, and an actor's success lies in their ability to interpret the text, leading one to question whether a dyslexic individual can find success as an actor. Yet several famous actors, including Octavia Spencer and Henry Winkler, are known to be dyslexic. As a dyslexic individual, I have also successfully participated in numerous productions despite the challenges I have faced within the art form. Thus, the difference between struggle and success for the dyslexic actor may lie in their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Identifying dyslexia-specific weaknesses can lead to new coping strategies, recyclable methodologies, improved self-advocacy, and a higher level of confidence. Realizing that one's excellent spatial reasoning, story analysis skills, vivid mental images, and imaginative thinking are characteristics of the dyslexic brain's strengths can be equally empowering. The foundation of these discoveries gives way to a new understanding of dyslexia. The first chapter of this thesis focuses on the definition of dyslexia, the differences in structure and function of dyslexic brains compared to non-dyslexic brains, and how these differences can present challenges. This chapter also introduces advantages, known as MIND strengths, as identified, and defined by Brock Eide, MD, MA, and Fernette Eide, MD, in their 2023 book, The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain. These advantages were only recently defined and provide fresh insight into the workings of the dyslexic mind. The following two chapters discuss the identification of dyslexic-related challenges, strategies, and MIND strengths that contributed to the successes and disappointments I experienced while performing in two different theatrical productions. Chapter Two chronicles how the challenges, strategies, and MIND strengths affected my reading of the script, character creation, rehearsal process, and performance in Noises Off, written by Michael Frayn, while Chapter Three chronicles the same process for Henry VI- Part One by William Shakespeare. Though sharing this process intends to act as a guide to breaking down the acting process, encouraging the use of coping strategies, and discovering one's MIND strengths, this thesis serves only as a springboard for other dyslexic actors. The effect of dyslexia is specific to the individual, and each artistic experience and expression is unique.

The variables that contribute to the acquisition of personal identity are many, and the interactions that occur before someone realizes "I am ... " are complex, to say the least. The process of ' identification' that is, the aforementioned acquisition of the self is not a static process that is the same for each person. Although some similar patterns of existence may occur, it is ultimately a unique occurrence. I propose that in the 'construction of the self that there are three broad facets of existence that should be addressed in answering questions concerning personal identity the physiological, the psychological, and the social. Each of these factors contributes to the process of becoming that is personal identity. This is in line with modem psychological models. The present work seeks to bring to light some of these facets of personal identity in general. More than this however, an attempt will be made to examine some of the ways in which physical disability can affect one's sense of personal narrative that is woven into "Who I am and whom I wish to be." In the course of this work several topics will surface. First an emphasis will be placed on the physical expressions and ' limitations' of the body as an extension into space. The concept of the "body schema" will be explained here to illustrate the ways in which the body is integrated into the self. Next, the psychological effects of physical disability will be addressed with a focus toward the reconstruction of mental representations of the 'normal' body and the resultant effects of this reconstruction. Here, the "body image" of the disabled individual will be discussed using data from

Although people with disabilities have made significant strides toward educational equity, they continue to face struggles in college that perpetuate their dismal college outcomes. Current research focuses on struggles endured in the on-campus setting and provides little insight into online course experiences. Toward addressing the knowledge gap, the study opened a social portal to online higher education, leveraging disability as an experiential lens to understand online course challenges and the potential for universal design for learning practices to reduce obstacles to academic success. We considered online course experiences concerning impairment effects and disablism within a social relational disability studies perspective. The study's methodological approach embraced liberatory access, leveraging access intimacy to practice interdependence as a recruitment and data collection tool that valued and enabled a disabled, deafblind researcher. An inductive thematic analysis foregrounding seven students with disabilities' lived experiences identified three themes in the data: adapting to impairment effects, negotiating constrained autonomy, and assessing universal design for learning. Study results showed that students with disabilities negotiate how their impairments and chronic illnesses affect their embodied functioning while also contending with structural and pedagogical constraints that impede students' efforts to adapt in ways that allow for flexibility in pace, time, and duration of academic work. Online course spaces were most beneficial and supportive for students with disabilities when instructors practiced universal design for learning. The implications of experiencing disability in online courses include a need for disability justice approaches to faculty training and research investigating universal design for learning practices, students with disabilities invisible work, and access intimacy in the higher education context.

The depiction of people with disabilities in American literature has varied considerably throughout the twentieth century. In the south in particular, disabled individuals have been portrayed as violent, licentious, and deceitful. This thesis examines three hallmarks of American southern literature—Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, and the short stories of Flannery O’Connor—to demonstrate the anxiety of that era surrounding disability, as well as how disability works in tandem with race and class. The fixation of these works on the sexual immorality of disabled men reflects the fascination with eugenics in the mid-twentieth century, as do their animalistic or inhuman qualities. While the societies depicted in these works value ableist belief systems, elements of these works themselves contain more progressive stances regarding disability. These works, when studied through a disability studies lens, have the potential to redefine the common perceptions of disability in southern literature.

Die qualitative Studie befasst sich mit der Lebenslage von (Ehe-)Paaren, welche in ihrer gemeinsamen Zeit als Zweierbeziehung den Eintritt einer sogenannten „Spätbehinderung“ durch plötzliches Krankheits- oder Unfallgeschehen oder aufgrund einer chronischen Erkrankung erleben. Die inhaltliche Fragestellung richtet sich auf die soziale Handlungspraxis partnerschaftlicher Arbeitsorganisation im Zusammenhang mit dem Eintritt einer körperlichen „Behinderung“ sowie auf die partnerschaftliche Deutung von „Körperbehinderung“ im Rahmen der dyadischen Wirklichkeitskonstruktion. In Erweiterung des aktuellen Forschungsstands wird diesbezüglich nicht allein auf die individuelle Sichtweise des „betroffenen Partners“ oder des „angehörigen Partners“ fokussiert, sondern auch die gemeinsame Ebene dyadischer Wirklichkeitskonstruktion miteinbezogen. Die Datengrundlage dieser Studie im Stil der Grounded Theory Methodologie bilden fünfzehn Interviewreihen, bestehend aus einem Paarinterview (narratives Interview) und anschließenden Einzelinterviews (problemzentriertes Interview) mit jedem Partner. Im Ergebnisteil verdeutlichen sieben Fallbeschreibungen die komplexe paarspezifische Bearbeitung einer „Spätbehinderung“ im Rahmen von Biographie, Ressourcen und Körperlichkeit. Theoretisch verdichtet werden die Ergebnisse in einer Konzeption partnerschaftlicher Konstruktion von Behinderung im Kontext von Leiberfahrung und Körperbetrachtung. Die partnerschaftliche Alltagsverhandlung dreht sich im Zuge der Neukonstruktion von Alltag und „Normalität“ um die körperliche Funktionsfähigkeit des Partners mit Beeinträchtigung und verhandelt dessen Veränderung der Körperlichkeit dabei gleichzeitig mit, wobei körperliche, kulturelle, medizinische und sozialpolitische Aspekte in die partnerschaftliche Deutung mit hinein spielen. Zudem berühren derlei Aushandlungen zentrale Grunddefinitionen von Partnerschaft wie Individualitätsentfaltung, Intimität und Privatheit. / This study focusses on the circumstances of marriage and quasi-marital couples, which experience together diability in later couple lifetime by occurence of chronical illness or impairment of one of the couples members. The contentwise question is on one hand targeted at the social practice of work processes and tasks of couples related to the life change through the occurence of impairment. On the other hand the study demands on the couples interpretation of this experience. The data basis consists of fifteen narrative interview cycles each containing one interview with the couple plus one interview with each marriage partner. Here the situation of a suddenly interruption of everyday life through an event of accident or illness has been contrasted with the situation of chronic ailment with its progressing loss of physical power. The study approach of interviewing, analysing and interpretation founds on the principles of the Grounded Theory Methodology. The results are presented twofold. Firstly seven case reconstructions clarify the couple''s coping with physical body change in the context of biography, capabilities and resources, and physicality and illustrate similarities and differences of the couple’s topics. After this a conception of the couple''s construction of reality in the case of an impairment experience were tendered. It describes the couple’s experience of change, disability and normality as a experience of the physical and functional body, which cannot be extricated from cultural and socio-political framing. Specifically, the main topic of the couple’s negotation concern on the one hand the self-activity of the partner with impairment and on the other hand the availability of the other part and his / her duty to compensate for both the lack of paid work and the increasing amount of time spent for everyday life. Significant is the fact that in this process challenge central positions of the couple’s intimacy and privateness.

No description available.

No description available.

The focus of this dissertation was to gain a better understanding of how families construct autism. Studies have overwhelmingly used the medical model or the institutional narrative to interpret how autism is understood in families. More recently, a counter-narrative has emerged resisting this medical model. Both narratives, however, simplify the intricate nature of the disability construct within families. Additionally, the term “family” has been used euphemistically to refer to mothers, fathers or siblings of children who have autism. This study explored the constructs of the whole family through shared stories of their day-to-day lives. Through a narrative inquiry, this study used semi-structured interviews and participant observational data collected in homes and communities of three families who have elementary school-aged children diagnosed with autism. Selection criteria consisted of English-speaking families who completed a university-based early intervention program. Attempts were made to select multidimensional or diverse families. Resulting data were analyzed using NVivo software. Five findings emerged. First, contexts and the interactions held within them played a significant role in the type of narrative that was used to construct disability. Second, constructs of disability were in process and fluid. Third, families held competing constructs of disability at both the group and individual levels. Fourth, the dominant cultural narrative of disability founded upon the medical model was used by families; however, its use was predicated on the desire to protect family members (i.e., child with disability as well as siblings) from perceived and directly-experienced exclusions from mainstream society. Fifth, a dominant construct of disability existed within families and was contingent upon the strength of that construct within various contexts with which the family engaged. Knowledge was added to the current literature on the complexity and fluid nature of the disability construct at the group and individual levels. In addition, these constructs were argued to be influenced by the interactive contexts and the embedded narratives of disability. Knowledge generated by this study can be used to integrate different lenses within professional training programs, and help to re-imagine the methods and aims of research that explore families who have children with disabilities.

The development and current state of the historical perspective of American Deaf women is outlined in the report. Initially this paper reviews the historical study of people with disabilities and for the American Deaf. This paper concludes with a review of the small but significant selections of historical scholarship related directly to American Deaf women along with recommendations to preserve the rich and colorful Deaf-oriented heritage; especially of the women. / text