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.

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.

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.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research indicates that stereotypes influence how people behave towards different social groups, and this study investigated how allies (individuals who will confront prejudice on behalf of targets or groups) differentially confront a discriminatory comment as a function of the groups’ associated stereotypes. The Confronting Prejudiced Responses (CPR) model would suggest that when someone feels an increase in a sense of emergency and a sense of responsibility to address discrimination, they will be more likely to confront that discrimination. Results indicate that although the group that was being discriminated against did not influence whether or not the participant would confront, the higher sense of emergency and sense of responsibility were indicators of a stronger likelihood of confrontation. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Choreographies of Disablement interrogates the historical relationship between dance and disability to recognize and define ‘disablement’ as a choreographic concept within contemporary dance practice. Working from choreographic analysis, interviews, and theories of sovereignty and crip time I argue ‘disablement’ grows out of the historical nexus in which Western concert dance, through the paradigm of ballet, was cultivated: the seventeenth century French political sphere and the prestige of a sovereign balletomane King. The performances of French kings in the burlesque ballet choreographies of 1624-1627 serve as the historical center of this research because disability has a political role to play at the dawn of concert dance in the West. This insight provides the historical perspective from which I locate the development of ‘disablement’ in the seventeenth century and identify its emergence in twenty-first century choreographies. This dissertation uses the historical and political significance of the burlesque ballets as a touchstone to then analyze three contemporary sites of choreography produced between 2004 and 2016. Chapter 3 considers the repertory of German choreographer Raimund Hoghe, a queer disabled artist. I focus attention on his piece Sacre – The Rite of Spring (2004), which draws upon dance’s historical, canonical past. Chapter 4 focuses on Disabled Theater (2012), devised by French choreographer Jérôme Bel in collaboration with the Swiss-based company Theater Hora, a professional theater company comprised of performers with developmental disabilities. The piece is composed of theatrical tasks, including the presentation of self-choreographed dance solos. Chapter 5 centers on the collaborative performance work, A Fierce Kind of Love (2016), comprised of Philadelphia-based disabled and nondisabled performers with choreography by US dance artist Nichole Canuso. Taken together, my analysis of these sites questions the state of disability within the discursive space of dance studies, and in turn positions ‘disablement’ as a historically inflected site of choreographic thinking materializing in contemporary practice. / Dance

This qualitative study examines the experiences of patients who have undergone renal transplant surgery. Interviews were conducted with six patient informants who received renal transplants one to six months prior to the study. Participants’ narratives offered insight into: the variability of transplant preparation, hopes, experiences, and perspectives of recovery, meanings of recovery, significance of social and economic supports in recovery, and the role of professional staff in providing support and resources during the transplant journey. Their stories are explored in relation to literature on psychosocial aspects of renal transplant and through a critical disability studies lens. The nuances of the social work role in relation to patients’ pre- and post-operative renal transplant journey was explored in depth. Based on the findings and relevant literature, recommendations and suggestions are made on how to expand the social work role in the pre- and post-transplant clinic at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Students with disabilities entering post-secondary education encounter unique challenges, such as deciding whether to disclose their disability in order to receive specific supports and services. Disclosing one’s disability is an individual choice weighing heavily on the student with consideration given to the possibility of experiencing judgment and stigma. Much research focuses on the experiences of undergraduate students with learning disabilities and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and potential barriers to seeking support from designated disability support services in college. The purpose of this research was to bring awareness of the recent experiences of graduate students with mental health conditions and their experiences utilizing disability support services. A collection of graduate students from a large public university registered with the school’s disability services office were interviewed and shared their perspectives on disclosing their disability in order to obtain services and support. Employing a narrative approach framed by self-determination theory (SDT), this qualitative study aimed to learn the experiences of graduate students with mental health conditions. The intention of the study is to demonstrate to others in similar situations that some of their fears and challenges are shared which may result in reduced feelings of isolation. In addition, college disability services personnel, faculty, and administrators may use this research to facilitate discussions on ways to further provide support and inclusion of graduate students with mental health conditions on college campuses. / Special Education

<p> In Madagascar, the barriers to persons with disabilities&rsquo; employability are multifaceted and relate to accessibility, funding, attitudes, and policies. Managers lack knowledge on disability and still perceive disabled persons as incompetent and associate them with costly accommodation needs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the management strategies and leadership styles that managers could use to enhance the employability chances of persons with disabilities. The conceptual framework featured the concepts of empowerment, employability, disability identity, and relevant transformational leadership theories. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 28 managers in private companies, institutions, cooperatives, and organizations in 3 regions of Madagascar. Data analysis was done with open hand coding and using NVivo 12 software. Key findings related to enabling management strategies that included promoting fair recruitment, tailoring jobs to disabled workers&rsquo; competences and health conditions, ensuring communication and reasonable accommodation. The study revealed the merit of an inclusive transformational leadership in fostering the employability of persons with disabilities, through coaching, in-training supports, compassion and kinship, motivation, and trust building. The study benefits managers who could better attend to disabled workers&rsquo; vocational needs. The study contributes to positive changes by influencing attitude change within the workplace and the community that could pave the way to an inclusive society in which disabled people could enjoy their rights to work.</p><p>

This thesis explores differences in the ways that intellectually disabled people are perceived, interpreted and related to within a Western context. Through a comparison of familial and institutionalised forms of relatedness, it examines the interrelation between these differences and the consequences that they have for either denying or acknowledging severely intellectually disabled people's capacities for sociality. Drawing on Carrithers' (1992) concept of sociality and mutuality, and Wittgenstein's (1953) notion of language games, the thesis analyses the means by which a meaningful and shared existence with intellectually disabled people can be negotiated and developed. Although limited and restricted in their capacities for symbolic expression, such people do have modalities of symbolic life upon which sociality can be built. By analysing the symbolic practices utilised by my three profoundly intellectually disabled siblings, I seek to show how relationships across the difference of intellectual disability are able to be symbolically mediated and negotiated. I argue that it is necessary to engage in relations of mutual interdependence in order to even recognise and perceive these practices as purposeful and meaningful. The mutuality that ensues requires a level of intimacy, empathy and commitment that is not easily sustainable, but which is necessary for the maintenance of intellectually disabled people's existence as social beings. These intimate relations are contrasted with clinical and institutional forms of relatedness, both of which have been informed and shaped by a symbolic scheme of reason and normality. This symbolic scheme associates a capacity for reason with normal humanness, where reason is identified as particular abstract, linguistic, mental practices that are then deemed necessary for sociality. These are what intelligence tests measure, and it is through such assessments that intellectually disabled people are rendered asocial. The pathologising of intellectual disability as an abnormal embodiment, and the clinical tendency to search only for deficits in functioning and ability, has led to a denial or ignorance of intellectually disabled people's abilities to be the independent sustainers and authors of mutuality and sociality. I draw on my family's medical notes, records from the institution where two of my siblings were sent to live, as well as observations made during twelve months of fieldwork with a group of intellectually disabled people attending an activities centre, and either living in community group homes or with their families, to elucidate the ways in which such interpretations of intellectual disability become instituted into daily practice. The instituting of training and management practices within day centres, group homes and institutions for the intellectually disabled are a consequence of the perception that intellectually disabled people have no capacity for sociality as they are. So too are the legal and structural obligations that inform the forms of relatedness that staff have with the intellectually disabled people with whom they work. These relations are based on separation and disengagement rather than mutuality and intimacy. The aim in these institutionalised environments is to instil in such people a range of normative social, domestic and vocational skills as though it is upon these that their capacity as social beings are dependent. As a result, the symbolic practices and dispositional behaviours through which intellectually disabled people express themselves are not recognised as such, nor are they engaged with. This undermines intellectually disabled people's capacity to be joint contributors to social life in a way which incorporates their differences rather than trying to transform them.