Understanding how students endorse affirmative consent in their sexual relationships is essential to sexual violence prevention. Some research has indicated that LGBT students and students with disabilities may negotiate and endorse consent uniquely because of socially constructed traditional sexual scripts. Research indicates gender differences may exist as well. The proposed research examines differences based on gender, LGBT status, and disability in affirmative consent endorsement and peer norms around sexual violence. Results indicated that women, nonbinary students, LGBT students, and students with disabilities were significantly less likely than their privileged counterparts to indicate low endorsement of affirmative consent. Results also indicated that women and some LGBT students are significantly less likely than their privileged counterparts to indicate high peer norms supporting sexual violence. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.

This dissertation discusses the convergence of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, the language acquisition and development of young children who are minimally verbal or nonverbal who acquire their native language while simultaneously learning to use an aided AAC system, and explicit and implicit elements that influence language outcomes. Factors investigated include those related to language acquisition universals, the AAC system, the young aided AAC user, and practices, philosophies, and beliefs of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Further examined were: (a) language acquisition parallels in atypical populations who do not possess the full range of senses who have been shown to develop language, and (b) analogies between the linguistic structures of pidgins, interlanguages, and the syntax of young aided AAC users. This dissertation employed a survey methodology to capture the practices and beliefs of SLPs as a means of identifying potential contributing factors to the reduced linguistic outcomes of these children. Quantitative findings revealed statistically significant differences in SLPs’ perceptions of confidence and qualification with the two populations of children with language impairments who use an oral modality and young aided AAC users. Descriptive trends across all constructs measured suggested differences in SLPs’ practices, belifes, and perspectives in their work with these two populations. The analysis of the syntactic structures of the language of young aided AAC users revealed definitive parallels with the construct of interlanguages.

Young adults with autism transitioning from school to adulthood are commonly described as exhibiting poor outcomes. Although there has been research efforts measuring quality of life and life satisfaction in individuals with autism, these conceptualizations of well-being are still predominantly deficit-focused and based on normalizing ideals of the dominant culture. Only by incorporating individuals with autism’s perspectives and involving their meaningful participation in research can we better understand and promote well-being among individuals with autism. The present study aims to explore young adults with autism’s ideas about well-being. I conducted a Photovoice project using a participatory action research approach with 14 young adults with autism in a post-school transition program and their three instructors. Results revealed a broad sense of young adults with autism expressing their differences while having a strong desire to be connected with others. Specifically, three themes depicted young adults’ ideas of well-being in terms of (1) showing their self-expression, understanding, and strengths as well as exhibiting personal growth and learning, (2) having close relationships with their family, friends, and animals, and (3) developing different ways of engagement and connections with the community and environment. The research process itself also supported their experiencing of self-expression and forming connections with other people, which were integral to their well-being. The young adults intended to use the project results to present their personhood in a positive manner and to promote better understanding of autism in society. I drew from critical disability studies to discuss the findings in relation to the academic literature and inform advocacy work at a broader sociocultural level. This study has implications for researchers to conduct research that is ethically appropriate and sensitive to the needs of the autism community. Practitioners working with transition-age youth with autism can also draw upon from this study to reflect on their relationships and engagement with these youth to better support their well-being.

Within the field of Disability Studies, research on cognitive and developmental disabilities is relatively rare in comparison to other types of disabilities. Using Clifford Geertz's anthropological approach, "thick description," autism can be better understood by placing both fiction and non-fiction accounts of the disorder into a larger theoretical context. Applying concepts from existing works in Disability Studies to the major writings of Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, and Donna Haraway also proves to be mutually enlightening. This ethnographic approach within the context of analysis of literary texts provides a model by which representations of individuals who are cognitively or developmentally disabled can be included in the academy.

Although higher education typically strengthens people with disabilities' chances to be in a competitive job market as a viable leverage to break away from poverty (Council of Canadians with Disabilities, 2014), the contemporary marketization of higher education within the era of neoliberalism has made degrees and diplomas increasingly unaffordable. The federal government responded to this predicament by increasing the Canada Social Transfer (CST) to offer up-front targeted funding to students with disabilities in 2008 (Kirby, 2011). However, virtually no literature has acknowledged whether financial grants meaningfully provide student with disabilities with an equitable opportunity to engage in post-secondary education (PSE). Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) on government online materials that address federal and provincial disability grants for post-secondary students with disabilities in Alberta and Ontario, this thesis reveals how the neoliberal rhetoric of personal responsibility colonizes government disability grants and leaves students with "more responsibility" and "less control" over their finances in an already disabling world. / October 2015

The understandings and treatments of the sexual rights of people with intellectual and psychological disabilities vary in different societies. However, one issue that is common in most societies is that this group of people experiences the highest rates of sexual violence and is regularly a-sexualized. Much attention has been paid to the increasingly visible issues of sexual violence in Latin America in a gendered and racial context, however recent scholarship has neglected to look at sexual violence in the context of people with disabilities. In this text, I aim to uncover how the human rights, and more specifically, sexual rights, are understood and treated for this highly marginalized group of people in Guatemala, a country that has endured heavy amounts of violence and trauma both contemporarily and historically. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted at institutions for disability services in urban Guatemala, I paint a picture of how the contemporary social and political climate involving violence, nearly complete impunity for crimes, culturally engrained patriarchal norms and neoliberal policies affect this group of people who are often depoliticized through patronizing portrayals in media and the public arena. Using in depth investigations of Guatemalan law and observational work and interviews conducted in public government-funded institutions, NGOs and non-profit organizations and human rights organizations, I seek to reveal the paradigms within the disparate types of institutions for understanding and treating people with disabilities. By questioning the institutional perceptions and treatments of the sexuality and sexual abuse of people with intellectual and psychological disabilities, I seek to examine the different ways cognitive disability has been socially constructed in Guatemala and the different reasons behind this group's social abandonment and high rates of sexual violence towards them. This work problematizes medical and charity models utilized for understanding disability that have been implemented through law, institutional and public policies, and societal misconceptions. This research also challenges Western disability policies and conceptions that have been imposed in developing countries like Guatemala, and questions the possibility to create spaces of local disability rights activism in spite of high risk factors for violence and neoliberal policies that limit political protest. / text

Submitted by Leonardo Cavalcante (leo.ocavalcante@gmail.com) on 2018-05-24T14:48:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 1308133 bytes, checksum: 5e8edd9d6322bffba07fbf25b81ad6ac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-24T14:48:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 1308133 bytes, checksum: 5e8edd9d6322bffba07fbf25b81ad6ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-14 / In spite of significant advances and increasing possibilities of social participation experienced by both women and persons with disabilities, the naturalization of their bodies remains as the main factor related to the permanence of practices of silencing and discrimination. In this doctoral research, the starting point is the observation that feminist movements, as well as the vast literature on gender issues, are fragile when it comes to the intersection with disability; in turn, most studies on disability neglect the female condition. Considering that gender and disability intersect as factors of oppression and discrimination that heighten female vulnerability and inequalities, the argument presented in this dissertation is that, in the case of women with disabilities, the process of precariousness of life occurs through the intersection of ableist and sexist structures. By establishing strong barriers to access to school, higher education, and to the full exercise of their sexuality, such structures place them in unequal positions in relation to men with disabilities and women without disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this research, located in the area of Cultural Studies of Education, was to analyze the effects of ableist and sexist structures in the experience of inequality and multiple vulnerabilities of women with disabilities. Based on literature review and an empirical approach to the trajectories of women with disabilities, it discusses the precariousness of the life they experience from the perspective of ableism and gender inequalities. It uses the notion of trajectory proposed by Pierre Bourdieu, which emphasizes the individual action of certain subjects (habitus), in close relation with wider social contexts (fields). The narratives of the educational trajectories of Maria Aparecida Ramos de Menezes, Joana Belarmino de Souza, and Nayara de Almeida Adriano, professors with disabilities at Federal University of Paraíba, collected through interviews conducted in the first semester of 2016, seek to answer the research question: "How ableist and sexist inequalities appear in the educational trajectories of women with disabilities within family, school, and higher education?" Based on their narratives, which evoke my own trajectory as a woman with a visual disability, the analysis points at the common experiences of inequality lived by women with disabilities, which exclude them from participation in the public sphere and deny their right to autonomous choice and decision-making, within a sexist and ableist culture. However, the trajectories of these three women reveal that education makes it possible to breakdown such barriers and contribute to the educational and social development of other women with disabilities. By presenting the relevant contributions of feminist perspectives regarding a new understanding of disability, this dissertation aims at strengthening the debate about the transformation of able-normative mentalities, a still incipient debate in both movements of women and people with disabilities, in order to open new possibilities of empowerment and social participation. / Apesar dos significativos avanços e das crescentes possibilidades de participação social vivenciadas por mulheres e pessoas com deficiência, observa-se que a naturalização de seus corpos é fator principal da manutenção de práticas de silenciamento e discriminação. Nesta pesquisa doutoral, constata-se inicialmente que os movimentos feministas, assim como a vasta literatura em torno de questões de gênero, são frágeis quando se trata da intersecção com a deficiência; por sua vez, a maioria dos estudos sobre deficiência negligencia a condição feminina. Ao considerar que gênero e deficiência se entrecortam como fatores de opressão e discriminação que potencializam a vulnerabilidade e a desigualdade feminina, o argumento desta tese é que, no caso da mulher com deficiência, o processo de precariedade da vida se dá pela intersecção de estruturas capacitistas e sexistas. Estas estruturas, ao estabelecerem sólidas barreiras ao acesso à escola, à universidade e ao pleno exercício de sua sexualidade, as colocam em posições desiguais em relação aos homens com deficiência e às mulheres sem deficiência. Assim, o objetivo geral da investigação, situada na área dos Estudos Culturais da Educação, foi analisar os efeitos das estruturas capacitistas e de gênero na experiência de desigualdade e múltiplas vulnerabilidades de mulheres com deficiência. Com base em revisão de literatura e abordagem empírica de trajetórias de mulheres com deficiência, discute-se a precariedade da vida dessas mulheres, sob as perspectivas do capacitismo e das desigualdades de gênero. Utiliza-se a noção de trajetória proposta por Pierre Bourdieu, a qual destaca a ação individual de determinados sujeitos (habitus), em estreita relação com contextos sociais mais amplos (campos). Os relatos das trajetórias educacionais de Maria Aparecida Ramos de Menezes, Joana Belarmino de Souza e Nayara de Almeida Adriano, professoras com deficiência em atuação na Universidade Federal da Paraíba, colhidos através de entrevistas realizadas no primeiro semestre de 2016, buscam responder à pergunta de pesquisa: De que forma as desigualdades capacitistas e de gênero se evidenciam nas trajetórias familiares, escolares e acadêmicas de mulheres com deficiência? Com base em suas narrativas, que evocam a minha própria trajetória como mulher com deficiência visual, a análise aponta experiências de desigualdade vivenciadas pelo coletivo de mulheres com deficiência que, resultantes de uma cultura sexista e capacitista, as excluem da participação na esfera pública e lhes negam o direito de realizar escolhas e tomar decisões por conta própria. Todavia, as trajetórias dessas três mulheres revelam que, através da educação, é possível romper com as barreiras supracitadas e contribuir para o desenvolvimento educacional e social de outras mulheres com deficiência. Ao apresentar as relevantes contribuições das perspectivas feministas no tocante a uma nova compreensão acerca da deficiência, espero fortalecer o debate, ainda incipiente em ambos os movimentos, de mulheres e pessoas com deficiência, acerca da ruptura de mentalidades corpo-normativas, para suscitar novas possibilidades de empoderamento e participação social.

Submitted by Aelson Maciera (aelsoncm@terra.com.br) on 2017-06-28T18:10:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMAG.pdf: 1418412 bytes, checksum: f60e4f8a4895083b4ee5735422059d6a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-08-07T18:02:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMAG.pdf: 1418412 bytes, checksum: f60e4f8a4895083b4ee5735422059d6a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-08-07T18:02:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMAG.pdf: 1418412 bytes, checksum: f60e4f8a4895083b4ee5735422059d6a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-07T18:08:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMAG.pdf: 1418412 bytes, checksum: f60e4f8a4895083b4ee5735422059d6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-08 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / In the problematization of the insertion of the desire by disability, as sexual or identity pathologies, this project proposes an incursion into the terminology and biomedical configurations on the subject in order to understand which discourses are triggered when it is sought to discriminate as ‘sick’ those and those who seek to relate erotically to the disabled or who want to cause disabilities in their own bodies. For this, the intention is to investigate the clinical bibliography produced on devotees, pretenders and wannabes, aiming to systematize to the maximum historically the continuities and discontinuities in the creation of these 'pathological types'. Concomitantly, aiming to establish a critical dialogue with the biomedical knowledge on sexuality and disability, I propose a more theoretical theoretical incursion into one intersection between disability studies and queer theory, the so-called crip theory. / Ao problematizar as colocações do desejo pela deficiência como patologias sexuais ou identitárias essa pesquisa propõe uma incursão nas terminologias e configurações biomédicas sobre o tema a fim de compreender quais discursos são acionados quando se busca discriminar como ‘doentes’ aqueles e aquelas que buscam relacionar-se eroticamente com deficientes ou que querem causar deficiências em seus próprios corpos. Para isso, a intenção é investigar a bibliografia clínica produzida sobre devotees, pretenders e wannabes, almejando sistematizar ao máximo historicamente as continuidades e descontinuidades na criação destes ‘tipos patológicos’. Concomitantemente, almejando estabelecer um diálogo crítico com o conhecimento biomédico sobre sexualidade e deficiência, proponho uma incursão teórico bibliográfica mais pontual na intersecção entre disability studies e teoria queer, a chamada teoria crip.

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.

Le sport est reconnu, par un nombre croissant de sociologues, comme un moyen heuristique de compréhension du social contemporain. Au cours de l'année 2007, l'institution sportive a été confrontée à une situation particulière. En effet, Oscar Pistorius, un athlète double amputé tibial appareillé, participe à des compétitions dites de « valides » (meetings internationaux d'athlétisme). La singularité de cette situation génère des controverses médiatisées à propos de la légitimité de sa participation. L'étude de cas, fondée sur une approche « pragmatique », vise à mettre en évidence ce que ces controverses révèlent du sport dans les sociétés contemporaines. L'analyse des discours médiatiques à propos de Pistorius montre que cet athlète pose un problème de catégorisation sportive. En effet, d'une part, les performances qu'il produit le distinguent de la catégorie « sportif handicap » et semblent permettre de l'intégrer dans la catégorie « athlète valide ». Mais d'autre part, son appareillage empêche d'entériner cette classification sportive. Malgré le verdict du Tribunal Arbitral du Sport qui l'autorise à participer à toute compétition d'athlétisme, la persistance des controverses témoigne du fait que la situation de Pistorius marque une rupture de l'intelligibilité sportive. Cette situation doit alors être comprise comme une monstruosité, au sens foucaldien du terme, car elle met en échec les définitions nécessaires pour penser le sport. Remettant en question les fondements de l'institution sportive, la situation controversée de Pistorius révèle ainsi la manière avec laquelle le sport met en ordre les athlètes. Plus précisément, cette monstruosité donne à voir l'incapacité de l'institution sportive à prendre en charge la différence radicale des corps performants appareillés. / Sport is acknowledged, by an increasing number of sociologists, as an heuristic way to understand contemporary societies. During year 2007, sports institution was faced up to a particular situation. Indeed, Oscar Pistorius, a double legs amputated athlete with artificial lower limbs, takes part in « able bodied » competitions (international athletics meetings). The singularity of this situation causes media covered controversies regarding legitimacy of his involvement. The study of this case, based on a « pragmatic » approach, highlighting what those controversies show from sport in contemporary societies.The analysis of media speeches about Pistorius reveals that this athlete poses a sports categorization problem. Indeed, on the one hand, the performances he produces distinguishes between him and « disabled athlete » category and seems to allow to put him in the « able bodied » one. But, on the other hand, his artificial limbs prevent from validating this sports classification. Despite the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport which autorises him to take part in all athletics competitions, the persistence of controversies shows that Pistorius’ situation gives a breach of sports understandability. Then, this situation has to be understood like a monstrousness, in the Foucaldian sense of the word, because it messes up the required definitions to think sport. Challenging sports institution basis, thus the disputed pistorius’ situation reveals the way in which sport sets athletes in order. More exactly, this monstrousness proves sport inability to take charge of the efficient fited bodies radical difference.