Browsing by Subject "Disability"

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Building the normal body: disability and the techno-makeover.
(2012-04) Beitiks, Emily Smith
By bringing science and technology studies together with disability studies and American studies, my work uses interdisciplinary methods to question popular assumptions about the normal body and what constitutes "progress." My dissertation uncovers the cultural stories we tell about disabled bodies normalized with science and technology. I ask: how does mainstream U.S. culture promote an understanding of disability as an imperfection to be corrected for the good of the nation and for technological progress? While these stories are inextricably linked to a cultural understanding of disability, I suggest there is something bigger at stake; disability helps sanitize widespread concerns about technological dependency. Technologies that normalize disabilities are promoted as icons of progress, but I argue technological progress does not equal social progress. I call these stories of people with disabilities being normalized "techno-makeovers." I situate techno-makeovers in several cultural locations: first, reality makeover television; second, news stories following the charitable "gift" of a techno-makeover to people with disabilities in the Global South; third, political discourse over stem cell research where the promise of techno-makeovers, for Michael J. Fox in particular, drives research; and fourth, in the disability technology industry, which often develops and markets wheelchairs and prostheses with a limited understanding of disability. Through these sites, my dissertation illustrates the many realms in which we repeat the same story about disability - as always in need of high tech normalcy above all else, leaving little room to prioritize social change that goes deeper than the techno-fix. As we celebrate that technology makes the body "right," it becomes harder to ask what was "wrong" to begin with.
Cancer and the medicare disabled.
(2008-11) Habermann, Elizabeth Anne
This dissertation examines relationships between cancer in working-age adults and enrollment in Medicare due disability. We examine whether cancer diagnosis and treatments affect enrollment in Medicare due to disability, whether there is pent-up demand for cancer diagnosis during the 29-month waiting period between application and receipt of Medicare benefits, and whether disabled working-age adults receive quality cancer care when enrolled in Medicare.
A comparison of academically-successful struggling adult readers' and academically-successful non-struggling adult readers' fluency skills: Implications for college reading instruction
(2008-09) Willcutt, Jennifer Ruth
Students who are struggling readers manage to succeed in college despite their difficulties. How do they manage to overcome their reading difficulties? This study addressed this research question both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative analysis of reading skill was necessary to measure and compare the fluency achievement of adult struggling readers who have succeeded in obtaining some postsecondary education with their typical adult reader peers. How fluent are these successful struggling readers, as measured by their grade level of word recognition, their reading rate and comprehension, and their performance on a lexical decision task? The qualitative survey and interviews were used to learn the reading, study, and social strategies that successful struggling readers have used to overcome their reading difficulties in college. Twenty-two self-identified adult struggling readers with some postsecondary education were compared to twenty-three typical adults readers enrolled in 4-year undergraduate and graduate school courses. One-way analysis of variance was used to test differences between the groups in reading fluency. Results indicate that there are no significant differences in word-recognition accuracy between typical and struggling readers on high-frequency real word identification; however, there are significant differences between typical and struggling groups on the recognition accuracy of non-words of 4, 5, and 6 letters in length. There are also significant differences between struggling and typical readers on 3, 4, and 5-letter, high-frequency word recognition latency, and 3, 4, 5, and 6-letter non-word recognition latency. Successful struggling readers report that they don't do a lot of reading, but when they do read, it takes them longer, they must take copious notes, and their reading is likely to be nonfiction that is related to their career goals. Academically-successful struggling readers also develop relationships with people who can help them succeed. College reading instructors can use these findings to help students choose appropriate materials and develop their reading fluency skills.
Constructing disability in Bhutan: schools, structures, policies, and global discourses
(2014-01) Schuelka, Matthew John
Bhutan is a small country in the Himalaya that has experienced rapid societal changes in the past 60 years. Perhaps the most significant change in Bhutan has occurred in its educational system, which grew from a very limited presence in 1961 to now serving the entire youth population of Bhutan. With this massive increase in educational service provision, the challenges of providing education for a heterogeneous student population are now front and center in Bhutanese policy and discourse. Specifically, one of the major challenges in Bhutanese education today is how to include students with disabilities in schooling. Inclusive education policy, philosophy, and practice has existed in international discourse for many years - especially in United Nations human rights initiatives such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This dissertation, using a vertical case study approach, explores the interactions of multiple levels of policy-making as the inclusive education discourse makes it way through Bhutan. At the top levels, two discursive streams are entering Bhutan - that of the medical approach to constructing disability and that of the rights-based approach to constructing disability. These distinct yet interconnected streams present a contradictory international message from which Bhutanese policy actors must try to make meaning. Several theories pertaining to the process of educational policy transfer are used to explain this policy borrowing process - world culture, world-systems, and a more anthropological approach - as it applies to the case of Bhutan. The study then shifts to the school level where the country's rich historical context has produced local socio-cultural constructions of disability that serve to `disable' and exclude certain students. These multiple levels of analysis show how local understandings and practices of disability influence Bhutanese interpretations and implementation of inclusive education policy borrowed from elsewhere and add new insights into the study of policy in comparative education.
Correspondence: Urban Mobility Plans and Accessibility
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2009) Dejeammes, Maryvonne
In France, as in other European countries, towns and cities have committed to reducing the negative effects of automobile traffic—accidents and air pollution—either by regulation or voluntarily in order to improve their inhabitants’ quality of life. Creating urban transport plans (PDUs) involves favoring non-automotive travel modes—walking and cycling—as well as public transport. Investment choices and planning of corresponding facilities are an excellent opportunity for improving accessibility to the town and public transport for disabled people and those with reduced mobility. The French law of February 11, 2005 “for equality of rights and chances, participation and citizenship of disabled people” included an obligation for PDUs to include an accessibility appendix whenever they are created, changed or revised. After a short review of the new regulatory obligations for authorities responsible for public transport and cities, this paper examines how PDUs approved since 1997 have dealt with the issue of accessibility for pedestrians and users of public transport. Two examples are analyzed. The first is the PDU for the town of Mulhouse, the actual decisions made concerning highways and public transports and the lessons learned by following indications and the difficulties encountered in involving local authorities responsible for accessibility modifications. The second example is the experience of Valenciennes in creating a street accessibility plan that will form part of the revision of the PDU. these examples highlight the institutional difficulties encountered and suggest methodological elements to facilitate cooperation between the various partners concerned and agreements with disabled people’s associations.
Disability discrimination of prospective adoptive and foster parents
(2015-04) Fleming, Grace Piechler
Parenthood is a notion shared throughout the globe, but for persons with disabilities, the laws and regulations surrounding the adoptive and foster care process create unnecessary barriers. Vague health requirements, lack of protections for disabled prospective parents, and the patchwork of state laws threaten that disability impedes persons throughout the United States from becoming adoptive or foster parents. Prospective parents with disabilities may face categorical denials when seeking to adopt or foster children. Many face bias and speculation concerning their parenting abilities during their application process. The effects of these practices are felt not only by those who seek to expand their families, but also the growing number of children awaiting homes. Disability rights law has often focused on employment discrimination, but the Americans with Disabilities Act aimed to create equal opportunity beyond those boundaries, including within adoption and foster care systems. This article analyzes a fifty state survey of adoption and foster care laws and regulations to present several problems within this arena including inconsistencies in non-discrimination provisions, vague health requirements for prospective parents that allow for discrimination and bias, lack of professional knowledge in evaluation of prospective parents' ability to care for a child, and failure to include reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. Fulfilling the best interests of the child must remain the paramount purpose of public and private agencies, but that should not mean that prospective parents with disabilities are denied the ability to adopt or foster when their home meets the best interests standard.
Disabling Trauma: Toward A Crip Critique of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(2019-08) Carter, Angela
Utilizing both Critical Disability Studies and Critical Trauma Studies, this dissertation investigates the dominant discourses within contemporary U.S. trauma culture. There are four primary goals. First, by analyzing the popular discourses of trauma this project explores what trauma, as a concept, does in contemporary U.S. society – particularly the impact the discourses of trauma have on society’s most vulnerable. Second, in bringing together these two interdisciplinary fields of inquiry, this project argues that we are better able to attend to the social, discursive, material, and embodied realities of trauma which allows for the situating of trauma as a coalitional site for affinity groups and political connection. Third, this project works to imagine trauma otherwise, specifically to reimagine trauma theory in ways that disrupts the current circulation of power and oppression within its discourses, thus allowing for more transformational and restorative healing both collectively and personally. Four, and last, this project aims to create breathing room for more narratives of trauma, including: alternative narratives, fractured narratives, futuristic narratives, anti-narratives, and no narratives at all. The dissertation begins with an analysis of thirty-six years of TIME magazine - through both quantitative methods and close readings - in order to understand how the popular discourses of trauma/PTSD have shifted since the diagnosis was incorporated into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Chapter Two provides a Feminist Queer Crip analysis of Emma Gonzalez’s “March For Our Lives” speech from March 24, 2018, offering a reconceptualization and working definition of trauma as an embodied, affective structure that must be taken out of the medical model of disability. Chapter Three turns to recent debates about trauma and trigger warnings in the college classroom. When contextualized within the intersecting politics of disability and feminist pedagogies, this chapter argues that three fundamental misconceptions within this debate become apparent and the need for a Feminist Disability Studies Pedagogy arises. Chapter Four imagines trauma otherwise through a close reading of A little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, arguing that the book’s main character presents an alternative, crip, ways of knowing and being with trauma that deserves our critical consideration.
Disentangling over-representation of parents with disabilities in the child welfare system: Exploring child maltreatment risk factors of parents with disabilities
(Children and Youth Services Review, 2014-12) Lightfoot, Elizabeth; Slayter, Elspeth
The study explores the risk factors for child maltreatment and self-reported child maltreatment among a population-based sample of parents with disabilities. Drawing on a nationally-representative, population-based data file that oversampled people of color, income-adjusted odds ratio tests were conducted to establish population differences among parents with and without limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs). Results suggest that parents with disabilities were more likely to report many of the risk factors associated with child maltreatment than parents without disabilities, including witnessing interpersonal violence as a child; experiencing violence, neglect or a foster care stay as a child; mood or substance use disorders; and engaging in or receiving interpersonal violence as an adult. Before controlling for income, parents with disabilities had only a negligibly higher rate of engaging in violence against their children. After controlling for income, parents with disabilities were 2.5 times more likely to engage in violence against their children. Parents with disabilities who did engage in violence against their children had greater amounts of some of the child maltreatment risk factors in comparison to parents with disabilities who did not engage in violence, particularly their own childhood experiences of maltreatment, witnessing of interpersonal violence as a child, childhood stays in foster care, and experiences with interpersonal violence as an adult. Findings add to the understanding of the risk factors for child maltreatment that are related to the collateral effects of having a disability, and through the use of income-adjusted data, help disentangle why parents with disabilities are over-represented in the child welfare system. The findings highlight the need for the child welfare system to increase its disability competence in working with both children and parents with disabilities.
The Engagement of Faculty Members with Disabilities
(2021-03) Campion, Peter
Employee engagement has been studied in many contexts, but studies have often failed to consider how a disability affects engagement. A deeper understanding about the engagement of faculty members with disabilities is necessary to ensure that research and practice are inclusive of all scholars’ experiences. This qualitative study explored how disabilities and relationships relate to employee engagement, disclosure, and accommodation seeking. The research was based on 22 interviews with 11 faculty members from 3 public university campuses in the Midwest. Participants included assistant, associate, and full professors who were registered and receiving accommodations from a university resource center as well as some individuals who had not disclosed their disabilities. Findings illustrated how universities can foster organizational cultures and meaningful relationships that support faculty members with disabilities. Initiatives that facilitate employee engagement for faculty members with disabilities are likely to lead to increased disclosure and accommodation-seeking behaviors. Findings also suggested that universities must bolster support by offering resources and training in order to enable faculty members to overcome the stigma that they experience related to their disabilities. Resources should explain how to navigate both the accommodation-seeking and tenure processes as well as how to effectively work with a disability liaison. Finally, they should help faculty members to advocate for themselves and others.
Factors Associated with Educational Completion for Students with Physical Disabilities in Doctor of Physical Therapy Programs
(2022-10) Sharp, Amanda
Since the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 many works related to the ADA and how higher education programs comply with the ADA have been published. However, few studies have investigated the factors associated with educational completion for students with physical disabilities (SWPD) in physical therapist programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the institutional context of where and how education for SWPD occurs and to learn more about factors associated with educational completion for SWPD in physical therapist programs. A conceptual framework was developed based on known educational scholars and on theories specific to the disability community. From the framework, a one-phase convergent approach consisting of a single data collection phase with both a quantitative and a qualitative component was conducted. Data were collected, analyzed separately, and then integrated to enhance the comprehensiveness of the findings. Results provide insight into the current demographics of SWPD in physical therapist education, including the relationship between technical standards, accommodations, disability resource offices, and institutional classification on SWPD with admission and completion. Supports and barriers related to SWPD were identified and can be applied across physical therapist programs. Implications for other health professional programs, ongoing research opportunities, and practice recommendations are detailed.
Faculty beliefs related to admitting and educating nursing students with disabilities.
(2010-04) Dahl, Diane L.
This study described the views of nursing faculty related to admitting and educating nursing students with disabilities. Participants consisted of 10 nursing faculty from baccalaureate nursing programs with experience either admitting or educating nursing students with disabilities. Two semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted, audio-taped, and transcribed for each participant. Young's framework of oppression and Oliver's medical/individual model and social model of disability informed this interpretive study. Findings revealed that a medical/individual model of disability informed nursing faculty's decisions and actions in relation to admitting and educating nursing students with disabilities and that nursing faculty lacked awareness of resulting oppressive behaviors. The findings should encourage nursing faculty to examine their beliefs related to educating nursing students with disabilities and change them if those beliefs endorse or actively support the oppression of students with disabilities.
Implications for Healing, Transformation and Prosperity: Historical and Cultural Trauma and People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
(2018) Zuber, Andrea Lou
Over the centuries, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have faced horrific treatment at the hands of greater society, and sometimes by the very people who care for them. In the United States, they have been subject to abuse, neglect, eugenics crusades, forced sterilization, involuntary separation from their families and communities in the form of institutionalization, and continued discrimination and oppression. This paper examines the impact those suffrages have had on people with IDD and their communities across the social determinants of health, concluding that today, this population is suffering from the effects of Historical and Cultural Trauma. With that understanding, a trauma-informed lens to healing can be applied to foster prosperity and transformation for people with IDD and the communities who support them.
International sojourns and acquired disabilities as intercultural experiences: a journey of personal transformation.
(2009-01) Voigts, Jessica
This dissertation seeks to illuminate the process of intercultural adjustment and development, using the Bennett Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, in two areas of my life - sojourns abroad and adapting to acquired disabilities. I propose that acquiring a disability is a life-changing experience, similar to a sojourn abroad or other deeply intercultural experiences. This dissertation puts forth the thesis that cross-cultural adjustment models and theory can be highly useful in helping persons with acquired disabilities adjust to their new culture and selves. This study generates knowledge that fills a gap in the disability, intercultural, and rehabilitation psychology literature in terms of coping with acquired disabilities in both systematic and meaningful ways. Hopefully, it will also inform and help those with acquired disabilities. Additionally, using the intercultural adjustment paradigm can only serve to broaden the impact of Bennett's model. This will expand how people think of culture as both interpersonal and intrapersonal, as well as impact how the newly disabled and their medical professionals and caregivers can think of disability as an intercultural experience.
The intersection of disability, domestic violence and diversity: Results of national focus groups
(Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 2009-02) Elizabeth, Lightfoot; Williams, Oliver J.
Using data from two national focus groups of nineteen key informants, this article explores the unique issues faced by people with physical and sensory disabilities in accessing help for domestic violence, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of people of color with disabilities. In addition, this study explores the programmatic preferences of people of color with disabilities in seeking help in regards to domestic violence, and assesses the cultural competence, disability awareness and domestic violence awareness of domestic violence service providers and disability organizations.
People Like Me: Disability, Identity, & Experiences in Postsecondary Classrooms
(2016-12) Ehlinger, Emily
Students with disabilities are pursuing postsecondary degrees in growing numbers, yet are still experiencing disparate educational outcomes when compared to their peers. Academic accommodations have been vital in supporting students with disabilities, but not all students choose to disclose and seek out formal supports. Less is known about classroom practices that support these students, regardless of whether they disclose a disability. Utilizing a narrative methodological approach, this study explored the ways in which 13 undergraduate students experienced their identities and disabilities in postsecondary classroom environments and their perceptions of the instructional practices that impacted their learning. The narratives revealed that students’ identities were fluid and that disability was not experienced in isolation from other identities. Students’ identities and disabilities affected their experiences in the classroom environment, and to a large extent, the way that they learned. Instructors, including their tone and messaging, were a significant source of support and at times also posed substantial barriers to students’ academic success. The extent to which community had been fostered, opportunities were provided for peer engagement and interaction, and multiple options were given for learning and demonstrating knowledge also affected students’ ability to learn and thrive in the classroom. Findings of this study support existing practices of Universal Design, although ideas for enhancing existing principles are also discussed. Implications for this study address the need for postsecondary institutions to focus on scholarship and practice to improve classroom experiences for students with disabilities, as well as to enhance instructor capacity to implement Universal Design.
Personal, social, and institutional factors influencing college transition and adaptation experiences for students with psychiatric disabilities.
(2009-12) Kampsen, Amy
The number of students with psychiatric disabilities attending institutions of higher education is on the rise. The increase in the number of students reporting psychiatric disabilities poses many challenges for college administrators in attempting to serve these students as they transition and adapt to college. The developmental processes typical of individuals transitioning and adapting to college may be disrupted for students with psychiatric disabilities due to the effects of their disability, which may impair or delay social and emotional development at a time when significant changes typically occur. The purpose of the study was to explore the personal, social, and institutional factors influencing the college transition and adaptation experiences for students with psychiatric disabilities. A qualitative interview approach was used to explore the factors in depth through data gathered from interviews with 9 students with psychiatric disabilities, interviews with 4 university staff members, and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). A conceptual model that emerged from the literature was modified and used as a guide for describing the factors associated with the college transition and adaptation experiences of the student participants. The study concluded with implications for administrators and service providers to consider, and recommendations for future research.
Self-Directed Services for the Long-Term Supports of Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis
(2023-05) Yun, Heejung
Through the civil rights movement, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) gained rights that are often taken for granted by non-disabled individuals, including the right to live immersed in the larger community instead of institutional facilities. Self-directed services (SDS) are an option intended to promote the autonomy of people with disabilities to make their own decisions regarding services. It provides service management authority to the service participants, including budget authority. Ever since its implementation in 1993, however, little attention has been paid to the quantitative evaluation of the impact of this service, even though SDS has become a statewide community care option. Indeed, every state in the U.S. has one or more SDS programs. This cross-sectional, observational study evaluated the effectiveness of SDS for people with IDD by comparing the quality of life and service satisfaction of participants and non-participants. Propensity score matching and multivariate regressions were applied to the 2018-19 National Core Indicators data (n=18,827) answered by 37 states’ service users. All analyses were adjusted for gender, race/ethnicity, care type (home, facility, other), metro status, income, age, and disability severity. Findings were mixed with respect to the quality of life indicators, and no difference in service satisfaction was found between participants and non-participants. Overall, this study does not support the notion that SDS is superior to traditional agency-based services. The implication of this study is that SDS deserves a higher level of scrutiny than it has thus far received. Its superiority over more traditional services should not be taken for granted. There are, however, two critical limitations of this study. First, the assignment to groups was not randomized. The second is that the survey was not explicitly designed to track the effectiveness of SDS. The use of randomized designs and survey instruments more closely tailored to SDS would either validate the findings more conclusively or contradict them with more robust methods.
The Spectre Of Institutionalization: Disability, Law, Performance, And Policy At The Pennhurst State School & Hospital And Pennhurst Asylum
(2023-08) Stenberg, Nathan
This dissertation combines archival and ethnographic research to investigate the Pennhurst State School & Hospital (PSSH), a custodial institution for dis/abled people turned haunted attraction, primarily staffed by dis/abled performers. I ask how Pennhurst became a performance venue which commodifies violence for entertainment, while paradoxically fostering community for the very people the former institution sought to eliminate. In doing so, this dissertation uncovers how institutionalization constructs and enforces legal, medical, political, and social notions of disability, producing identities which simultaneously dehumanize and sustain dis/abled people. I theorize institutionalization as an ongoing social process and show how one dis/abled community uses performance to reinterpret and reclaim it. Chapters examine the commitment process to the PSSH through the lens of disability, law, and performance (Act I), and compare official “accounts” of care at the PSSH with the experiences of those forced to exist at the institution (Act II). The first half of the dissertation ends by examining the lawsuits that closed the PSSH, and Pennhurst’s influence on current disability policies (Intermezzo). The second half of the dissertation offers an ethnographic analysis of the contemporary Pennhurst Asylum haunted attraction (PA). The PA’s immersive performances of horror elide fact with fantasy and conceal ongoing violence against dis/abled people (Act III). The dissertation ends by showing how (in Act IV) the community of dis/abled and nondisabled people who work for PA perform vernacular dis/ability heritage work through their collective inhabitation of and care for this former institution. In doing so, they reclaim the space once intended for their segregation from society to create a space for dis/abled people made by dis/abled people.
Temporomandibular joint disorders’ impact on pain, function and disability
(2013-12) Chantaracherd, Pathamas
Aims: To determine the association between more advanced stages of temporomandibular joint intra-articular disorders (“TMJ intraarticular status”), representing a transition from normal joint structure to TMJ disc displacement with and without reduction (DDwR and DDwoR) to degenerative joint disease (DJD), and patient-reported outcomes of jaw pain, function, and disability (“TMD impact.”) Methods: This cross-sectional study included 614 cases from the Validation Project with at least one temporomandibular disorder (TMD) diagnosis. TMJ intraarticular status was determined by three blinded, calibrated radiologists using magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography as one of normal joint structure, DDwR, DDwoR, or DJD, representing the subject’s most advanced TMJ diagnosis. TMD impact was conceptualized as a latent variable consisting of (i) pain intensity (Characteristic Pain Index from the Graded Chronic Pain Scale [GCPS]), (ii) jaw function (Jaw Functional Limitation Scale); and (iii) disability (Disability Points from GCPS). A structural equation model (SEM) estimated the association of TMJ intraarticular status with the latent measure TMD impact as a correlation coefficient in all TMD cases (N=614) and in cases with a TMD pain diagnosis (N=500). Results: The correlations between TMJ intraarticular status and TMD impact were 0.05 (95% CI -0.04 to 0.13) for all TMD cases and 0.07 (95% CI -0.04 to 0.17) for cases with a pain diagnosis, which are neither statistically significant nor clinically relevant. Conclusion: Conceptualizing worsening of TMJ intra-articular disorders as four stages and characterizing impact from TMD as a composite of jaw pain, function, and disability, this cross-sectional study found no clinically significant association. Models of TMJ intraarticular status other than ours (normal structure → DDwR → DDwoR → DJD) should be explored.
The transition of youth with disabilities from the child welfare system: an analysis of state administrative data.
(2010-11) Hill, Katharine Miller
Youth with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system (Crosse, Kaye, & Ratnofsky, 1992; Sullivan & Knutson, 2000). Although research on this topic is limited, youth with disabilities who are emancipating from foster care are at risk for particularly poor outcomes, experiencing even lower rates of employment, educational attainment, and economic stability than their non-disabled peers who are aging out of care (Anctil, McCubbin, O'Brien, & Pecora, 2007a; Anctil, McCubbin, O'Brien, Pecora, & Anderson-Harumi, 2007b; Zetlin, 2006). Using state administrative data, the study compares youth with disabilities emancipating from foster care to their non-disabled peers, examining prevalence and demographics, as well as differences between the two groups in key education, child welfare, and disability-specific variables. It examines how transition outcomes in the areas of secondary and postsecondary education and adult corrections differ for youth with and without disabilities who have aged out of foster care. Finally, it examines the relationship between the identified transition outcomes and the key predictor variables in the areas of education, child welfare, and disability-specific services. Analysis found significant differences between youth with disabilities and their non-disabled peers who have aged out of foster care. Youth with disabilities are more likely to be male, Native American, or Asian than their non-disabled peers. They experience different permanency plans and are less likely to access child welfare transition services. All of the youth experienced high rates of placement instability, and youth with disabilities appeared to experience slightly higher rates. Youth with disabilities were placed in juvenile corrections and/or residential treatment prior to finishing high school in greater numbers than their non-disabled peers. However, they were also more likely to attend school regularly. Youth with disabilities were less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to be enrolled in postsecondary education and training, and more likely to appear in the adult correctional system. Additionally, child welfare transition services were associated with negative adult school completion outcomes, such as increased risk for drop out for youth both with and without disabilities. Thus, it is critical that researchers, policymakers, and practitioners improve their expertise, programming, and focus on older youth with disabilities in the child welfare system.

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