The purpose of this inquiry was to conduct a comparative analysis of the legislative action taken by the government of each Canadian province and territory, as of December 31, 1992, with respect to the provision of equal educational opportunity for students with disabilities. The methodology consisted of a form of qualitative content analysis of the relevant legislative action, validated by provincial representatives, complemented by a study of relevant case-law. The analytical framework comprised 60 items grouped around five types of rights: non-discrimination, access, identification/placement, service delivery and parental participation. Overall, four jurisdictions, the Yukon, followed by Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan, were found to provide for a significant level of rights. Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories were found to provide for the lowest level of overall rights. Equality rights and access received the highest ratings across all jurisdictions, while parental participation, service delivery and identification/placement were rated lowest. Extensive references and key extracts from all legislation analyzed are included.

Implementing the legal mandate to accommodate students with impairments in higher education, particularly in fieldwork settings, poses a significant challenge to retaining academic integrity (Pardo, 1999). Currently, there is no consistent way of determining which academic requirements are “bona fide” (OHRC, 2004), and might not be altered for students with disabilities, and those which can be accomplished using a different method. Situating accommodation and accessibility within the Environmental Factors domain of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF) as a theoretical framework, a set of questions are presented to determine whether academic requirements in fieldwork can be accommodated or not, and why. Combining an occupational therapy perspective on the importance of task analysis (Ashworth, 1995) with the means of identifying discrimination laid out in the human rights case law provides the required tools for such an analysis. This dissertation examines the intersection of legislated mandates for accommodation and academic integrity, by applying human rights legislation to higher education. Using the three-step test of discrimination set out in Meiorin (1999) and an additional question based on Granovsky (2000) to analyze academic tasks and requirements of fieldwork, bona fide requirements can be determined. The resulting model for determining accommodation for students with impairments is applicable to accommodation of disability in primary and secondary education, as well as in the employment sector and accessibility planning, and contributes to standards of practice in academic accommodation planning, a need identified by Reed, Lund-Lucas, & O'Rourke (2003). Following the introduction, six distinct chapters explore 1) the background of accommodation in post-secondary education, 2) the weaving together of models of disability with legislated requirements and curricula, 3) the human rights paradigm itself, 4) accommodation policies, 5) an experimental focus group investigation of the proposed model, and 6) an explication of when accommodation might not be appropriate. The conclusion draws these various threads together into a lifeline for accommodation analysis and planning. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-02-04 19:28:14.838

Disabled students� experiences of working with teacher aides constitute a recent focus of international inquiry. To date in New Zealand, there has been no specific investigation of this aspect of education, despite the widespread reliance on teacher aide support as the primary means of responding to disabled students� presence in schools. Similarly, there are very few New Zealand studies in which teacher aides are the primary participants. This thesis seeks to address this absence in New Zealand educational research by exploring students� and teacher aides� experiences of working together, in order to understand the impact of assigning responsibility for students who have complex learning support requirements to teacher aides who require no qualification, training, or experience to work in this role. This interpretive qualitative study is positioned in a multi-dimensional framework of current disability, social justice, and sociology of childhood theorising. A series of semi-structured meetings were held with ten students, aged eight to seventeen years, who attended schools in the South Island of New Zealand. As well, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen teacher aides who worked in a range of primary, intermediate, and secondary schools in the same geographic area as the student participants. Data were interpreted utilizing both inductive and deductive means of analysis. Students� participation in the research and their contributions to the findings demonstrated their competence, agency, and heterogeneity. Students conveyed a sense of the importance and value of the teacher aide�s role, if clearly defined and carried out in a positive, professional manner within the context of supportive schools. The findings relating to teacher aides� experiences highlighted the diverse, ambiguous nature of their roles, conceptualised as a continuum of support ranging from aiding teachers in inclusive contexts, to aiding students in assimilationist circumstances, to assuming the role of teacher or babysitter for students in exclusive educational environments. Analysis of teacher aides� experiences revealed the fundamental importance of relationships in coming to know students in terms of their humanness and competence, and in underpinning teacher aides� efforts to do the right thing by students. Participants also identified the need for all adults involved in the policy and practice of education to develop shared understandings of respectful, socially just ways of thinking about disability and childhood as the foundation of a common commitment to teach all students well. The insight generated by participants, who represent perhaps the least powerful of students and employees in New Zealand schools, illuminates some of the most significant changes that need to occur in the thinking and practices of people involved in educational policy-making, teacher and teacher aide education, and schools. Addressing these educational deficits may contribute to the development of a socially just education system that is respectful of and responsive to human difference while recognising and respecting our mutual humanness.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wyoming, 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jan. 2, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-128).

Thesis (Ed.D)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Robert Hampel, School of Education. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Prepared for: School of Education. Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Bibliography: leaves 161 - 174.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-156).

Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed March 28, 2007). Advisor: James A. Tyner. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-88).