People with disabilities are likely to experience difficulties overcoming the impact of natural disasters. Few scholars have focused on this population's ability to recover and handle stress following a natural disaster. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe coping strategies and resilience factors that people with physical or mental disabilities used in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Resilience theory was used as the theoretical framework. Through face-to-face interviews, 10 persons with disabilities shared their experiences of coping and resilience. A lens of interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify emergent themes related to persons with disabilities' experiences of overcoming challenges and sustaining wellbeing in the aftermath of this natural disaster. According to study results, religion, recreation, and relaxation techniques were the main coping strategies used, and self-determination and independent skills were resilience factors that helped persons with disabilities remain positive and overcome challenges following the hurricane. Participants reported experiencing emotional reactions and identified the dislocation as the greatest stressor. The findings of this study have the potential to effect positive social change by informing stakeholders such as policymakers, community, and state agencies, and related professionals to help them recognize and address the health and psychological needs of persons with disabilities following a hurricane. Knowing which coping strategies and resilience factors persons with disabilities use to create awareness of the positive ways in which persons with disabilities manage the aftermath of this natural disaster.

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.

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In the years since 2010, themes of mental illness on the musical theater stage have increased dramatically, most notably with the Broadway premiere of Dear Evan Hansen in 2016, which quickly became a popular and critical success, winning six Tony Awards the following season. Despite scope and reach of the modern American musical, relatively little musicological scholarship has explored this area, and of that literature, even less has examined contemporary musicals. In this thesis, I will begin to fill this gap in the literature through the application of emerging critical musicological lenses to modern musical theater, both on and off Broadway. This thesis puts forth a set of representational models to explore how mentally ill characters are represented in contemporary American musical theater. Through six case studies of twenty-first century shows employing these models, this thesis examines how these models intersect with narrative critiques and theories put forth by disability studies scholarship to analyze the representations of mentally ill characters onstage. I examine the shows Next to Normal, Be More Chill, In the Green, Preludes, Dear Evan Hansen, and Bandstand to analyze how the internal experience of mental illness is externalized and shown onstage in each of these shows, evaluate which underlying narratives and ideas about mental illness that these representational models contain, and investigate how ideas from disability studies scholarship can illuminate some of the strengths, weaknesses, and failures of these shows in their portrayal of mental illness. Although this thesis relies extensively on ideas, language, and scholarship from disability studies, it is not a disability studies thesis; rather it will demonstrate how scholarly lenses provided by disability studies can be fruitfully applied to musical and theatrical representations of mental illness. In addition to touching on themes of genre, characterization and narrative theory, therapy and treatment for mental illness, and modern marketability of musical theater, this thesis demonstrates that the theories from disability studies scholarship can be fruitfully applied to other depictions of non-normativity, such as mental illness.

Mental illness and language disorders are rarely linked together as a way of making a comparison. In this study, a comprehensive scoping review was initiated to discuss the differential diagnostic characteristics of expressive language in Schizophrenia and Wernicke’s Aphasia (WA). This study will examine the domains of language where there are overlaps between the characteristics of expressive language. Semantics, pragmatics, and discourse will be further examined while comparing what aspects of expressive language are key in each domain. Schizophrenia being classified as a mental illness and WA being classified as an acquired language disorder, there are fundamental properties of language that are synonymous; however, the terms used can be different. This study will discuss the process and reasoning behind a scoping review. The results of this scoping review will identify the gaps in the literature addressing similarities between the patterns of expressive language use in these two diagnoses.

Sammanfattning/abstraktDunér, Pia (2014) ”Design for all” – ett perspektiv på inkluderingsbegreppet (“Design for all” - A perspective on the concept of inclusion) Specialpedagogprogrammet, Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärande och samhälle, Malmö högskolaProblemområdeBegreppet ”Design for all” kommer från forskningsfältet ”disability studies” och bygger på en förändring i synsättet hos de som arbetar med personer i behov av särskilt stöd, för att dessa personer ska ses som subjekt med rättigheter och möjlighet till delaktighet, och inte som objekt. Teorin fokuserar inte bara på individer med funktionshinder utan involverar alla individer som är i svårigheter utifrån exempelvis etnicitet, social klass och kön. Jag inspirerades till att använda begreppet i min studie vid en föreläsning av Claes Nilholm där han nämnde det som en vidareutveckling av inkluderingsbegreppet. Jag anser att begreppet ”Design for all” är intressant utifrån att det delvis bryter mot de gamla termerna integrering och inkludering. Begreppet handlar, enligt mig, om att ”tänka nytt” inte bara ”tänka vidare”. Jag menar att när det började talas om inkludering istället för integrering handlade det om att ”tänka vidare”, vilket i många fall inte ledde till någon förändring alls utan att det snarare handlar om ordklyveri. Detta framgår också av Persson och Persson (2012) som hävdar att ordet inkludering inte förekommer vare sig i den utbildningspolitiska retoriken eller i styrdokumenten.SyfteSyftet med studien var att belysa framför allt tolkningar, men även attityder och värderingar rörande ”inkluderingsbegreppet” och begreppet ”barn i behov av särskilt stöd” bland aktörer inom förskolan. Jag ville även belysa hur tolkningarna kan påverka möjligheten att utveckla ett mer proaktivt arbetssätt ur ett ”Design for all” – perspektiv.FrågeställningarMina frågeställningar var: Hur tolkar olika aktörer inom förskolan begreppen ”barn i behov av särskilt stöd” och ”inkludering” utifrån förskolans läroplan? Hur visar sig dessa tolkningar i praktiken? Vilka förutsättningar respektive hinder finns för ett utvecklingsarbete mot ett ”Design for all-perspektiv”.Teoretisk ramJag utgick från systemteori då jag avsåg att belysa tolkningar ur organisations-, grupp- och individperspektiv, hur detta syns i praktiken, samt hur de olika delarna i systemet påverkar varandra utifrån dessa tolkningar.MetodJag utgick i studien ifrån en kvalitativ ansats utifrån ett tolkande arbetssätt, närheten till datamaterialet och ett intresse av att gå på djupet. Eftersom jag avsåg att tolka människors handlingar och deras upplevelse av olika situationer så antog jag ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Mina metoder var intervjuer, fokusgrupper samt deltagande observationer och jag vände mig till olika aktörer inom förskolan. Intervjuerna spelades in via diktafon och transkriberades sedan.Resultat med analysDet visade sig att tolkningarna av olika begrepp och av läroplansmålen skiljer sig mellan informanterna. Det som skiljer sig mest är förhållningssätt och barnsyn. Tolkningar av begreppen inkludering och barn i behov av särskilt stöd skiljer sig också i olika grad mellan informanterna. Det framgår av resultatet att specialpedagogen har en framträdande roll som handledare och stöd för pedagogerna i deras arbete med barn i behov av särskilt stöd och i utvecklandet av en inkluderande verksamhet.KonklusionStudien visar i likhet med både tidigare nationell och internationell forskning att det är långt kvar till ett fullt utbyggt inkluderande arbetssätt inom förskolan och ännu längre till det uppnås ett ”design for all-perspektiv”. Ganska överraskande visar dock min studie på att en av förskolorna kan sägas i hög grad arbeta ur ett ”design for all- perspektiv”. För att uppnå en förändring måste det ske en förändring i förskolans kultur, en förändring i, som Persson och Persson (2012) benämner som, tankekollektiv och tankestil. Inom systemteorin handlar det om en förändring av andra ordningen, enligt Öquist (2008).Specialpedagogisk implementeringÖquist (2008) menar att det behövs det kopplingar mellan olika system och även mellan delar i ett system. Här anser jag att specialpedagogen kan ha en roll i att genom handledning och proaktivt arbete utgöra denna koppling. På så sätt kan successivt arbetet med en inkluderande verksamhet implementeras på förskolorna och förhoppningsvis också så småningom ett ”Design for all-perspektiv”. Dessutom kan denne förankra ett mer professionellt förhållningssätt ur ett barns perspektiv ute i verksamheterna.

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This thesis examines the fissures and intersections between feminist digital media, queer theory, and Mad and disability studies. Moving across social media platforms, hashtag data, and digital gaming, this project argues for the subversive and creative potential within Mad/crip/queer digital identity performances. My theorizing of the avatar as an automedial figure in this project is attentive to the politics of the face as a site of encounter, to digital bodies and movement, to identification and community-building, and to embodiment and affects that move between on- and off-screen lives. This thesis follows the “bad avatar,” a collection of Mad digital identity practices that interrupt, disrupt, and transgress normalizing and normative digital spaces of North American settler capitalist culture. Claiming the bad avatar as a deliberate identity position is an act of claiming the label of “bad,” which here has multiple meanings: Mad queer bodies—physical and digital—are bad citizens because we break the heteronormative patriarchal rules. We’re troublemakers—we make trouble for power systems and those who embody power. We can be bad workers, unproductive and fatigued. We can be bad for capitalism and bad for nationalist morale. We also experience feelings that become pathologized and policed. As despair, panic, melancholy, and angst stick to our bodies our bodies themselves become framed as bad: sick, broken, wrong, a problem in need of fixing or eradication. Reclaiming “bad” is both a celebration of the willful subject (Ahmed 2014) and a challenge to the binary of “good/bad” that is used to oppress Mad and disabled bodies. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis theorizes the digital avatar as an automedial figure, a mode of virtual embodiment and a site of encounter. I use “avatar” to draw a connecting line between widely varied digital identity acts that occur across social media platforms and video games. This thesis examines the “bad avatar,” a collection of Mad/crip/disabled faces, bodies, and identity practices that interrupt, disrupt, and transgress the normalizing and normative digital spaces of North American settler capitalist culture. Mad/crip digital identity play offers avenues for enacting modes of resistance through the politics of representation and the processes of identity performance and community-building.

z & s charts the story of Sophreen and Zehra, ostensibly two girls in love, who experience transnational migration together. Through the lens of their relationship, I explore themes of embodiment, survival, complicity, cultural erasure, and the complexity of abuse and trauma for multiply marginalized people. I use poems and visual art to portray the colliding worlds of feminized people as they navigate madness, psychosis, disability, and illness in the frame of desire.