Browsing by Subject "disability"
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Item Arthritis impact on the physical function, disability, and health-related quality of life among older Mexican-Americans(2009-03-02) Saad M. Bindawas; Elizabeth J. Protas, P.T., Ph.D.; Yong-fang Kuo, Ph.D.; Soham Al Snih, M.D., Ph.D.; Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, O.T.R., Ph.D.; Dennis L. Hart, P.T., Ph.D.; Anita C. Mercado, M.D.Background and Purpose: Arthritis is a major cause of disability with a sizable impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older adults, especially among older non-Hispanic white subjects. The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between arthritis and its effects on the physical function, disability, and health-related quality of life, over time, among older Mexican-Americans, the fastest growing subset of the older population. \r\nDesign: A six-year prospective cohort study (2000 to 2006). Setting: Five Southwestern states: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and California. \r\nParticipants: A population-based sample of 621 non-institutionalized Mexican-Americans aged 65 or older from wave four of the Hispanic Established Population for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (Hispanic EPESE). \r\nMeasurements: Included sociodemographic variables, self-reported of: arthritis, pain on weight-bearing, activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), physical and mental HRQoL, medical conditions, cognitive function and depressive symptoms. Lower and upper extremity muscles strength, lower body function test and body mass index (BMI) were also obtained. General linear mixed models and generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to examine the time effect on: 1) each stage of the disablement process and 2) physical and mental HRQoL over three points of time (2000-2001, 2001-2002, and 2006). This study conforms to STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology) guidelines for cohort studies. \r\nResults: The results indicate 1) a significant association between arthritis and greater impairment (pain and poor muscle strength), functional limitation, disability (ADL and IADL), and physical HRQoL across time; and 2) a significant association between impairment, functional limitation, and IADL limitation with physical and mental HRQoL across time. Conclusions: In older Mexican-Americans, arthritis is a highly prevalent medical condition which significantly impacts physical function, daily activities, and physical HRQoL over time. In this cohort, impairment, functional limitation, and disability were associated with poorer physical and mental HRQoL. These findings could guide efforts in reaching the goals of the National Arthritis Action Plan, as well as the Healthy People 2010 initiative goals of increasing quality of life and eliminating health disparities in this segment of the older U.S. population.Item College students' comfort with assertive behaviors: An analysis of students with and without disabilities in three different postsecondary institutions(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Orr, Kristie ScrutchfieldFirst-year college students have many new responsibilities and challenges. They are faced with increasing autonomy and must find resources and people to help guide them. Students with disabilities face an even greater need to be independent and juggle more responsibilities, as they must disclose their disabilities to campus personnel if they need accommodations and become a self-advocate. In order to self-advocate, students must feel comfortable with being assertive. This study examined the differences in comfort with assertive behaviors between students with and without disabilities at three different types of postsecondary institutions (junior college, 4-year regional university, and 4-year Research 1 university). Two hundred seventy-eight freshman and sophomore students completed a questionnaire concerning their comfort with many different assertive behaviors. The following three variables were examined: a) college students' comfort with overall assertiveness; b) college students' comfort with verbal assertiveness; and c) college students' comfort with prosocial verbal skills. iv There were no significant differences between students with disabilities and students without disabilities in terms of their discomfort with assertive behaviors on any of the three variables. Males were more comfortable with assertive behaviors than females in terms of their overall assertiveness and their verbal assertiveness. Students from the 2-year junior college were more comfortable with overall assertiveness and verbal assertiveness than students at either the 4-year regional university or the 4-year Research 1 university. There were no differences between groups in terms of their prosocial verbal skills. Conclusions about the differences found in the study are reported. Recommendations for disability service providers are provided, as well as suggestions for future research.Item Digitizing for Accessibility: Building a Multimedia Disability History Archive That’s ADA Compliant(2017-05-24) Schenk, Krystal; Leverenz, Andrew; University of Texas at ArlingtonIn the late 1960s, disabled students convinced UT Arlington administrators to make the campus accessible to students with a wide array of disabilities, striving to make the school into a model campus for Texas and the greater Southwest. This pioneering spirit continues today with establishment of the Minor in Disability Studies in 2013, the first such program in the southern U.S. In order to support this new program and to preserve a rich campus history, the UTA Libraries assembled hundreds of items from its Special Collections relating to people with disabilities, including photographs, videos, reports, letters, and objects. Added to these were oral histories from a wide variety of disability rights activists, athletes and coaches in adapted sports, advocates for higher education accessibility, and alumni of UTA, among others. The resulting Texas Disability History Collection website was built using the Drupal content management system. The size and scope of the project posed several challenges, including how to merge metadata from 27 separate collections, how to prepare the materials to be accessible by people with disabilities, and how to design and test the website to ensure the broadest accessibility.Item The effects of social networks and social support on the relationship between race/ ethnicity and disability in older adults(2010-09-20) Jacqueline M Hirth; M. Kristen Peek; Rebeca Wong; Mukaila Raji; Kyriakos Markides; Jacqueline AngelObjectives: Researchers have begun to focus on social resources, including social\r\nsupport and social networks, as being important to health. Especially in the case of race\r\nand ethnic differences in disability among older adults, social resources are important to\r\nconsider because they may be able to help explain some of the gap in disability that exists\r\nbetween groups. This study describes the effects of social support and social networks on\r\ndisability in older whites, blacks and Mexican Americans. Methods: In this study, two\r\nsets of longitudinal data were used to conduct the analyses, including the Hispanic\r\nEPESE (1993-2007) which represents older Mexican Americans 65 years and older\r\n(N=3,050), and the Duke EPESE (1986-1992), that consists of older blacks and whites 65\r\nyears and older (N=4,316). Generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze the\r\nchange in disability across time, and discrete-time hazard analysis estimated with logistic\r\nregression was used to analyze the risk of developing disability and recovery between\r\nVII\r\nintervals of data collection. Results: Social support was associated with decreased\r\ndisability among blacks and whites; however, contrary to hypotheses, social support was\r\nassociated with increased disability across time among Mexican Americans (with the\r\ninclusion of depressive symptoms in the models). In addition, social support partially\r\nmediated the association between race and disability. Focusing on social networks, the\r\nresults showed that social network size is associated with decreased disability across time\r\nin all groups and with greater recovery among blacks and whites. A higher proportion of\r\nfriends was associated with less disability across time among Mexican Americans and a\r\ndecreased risk of developing disability among blacks and whites. Conclusions: This\r\nstudy illustrates the complex nature of social support and social networks and how each\r\naffects disability in diverse populations. Depression plays an important role in the\r\nassociation between social support and disability among Mexican Americans, and health\r\nis also important in the association between social support, social networks, and disability\r\nin all three groups. In the future, researchers should consider the sociocultural context of\r\nsocial support and social networks in investigating health disparities in disability.Item Examining Employer Attitudes and Valued Employability Skills For Individuals With and Without Disabilities(2012-10-19) Ju, SongThis dissertation presents three separate studies designed to examine perspectives on employment for individuals with disabilities from employers and educators. First, a literature review was conducted on the studies published in the past decade to provide an update of employers' attitudes toward employees with disabilities. Investigated factors included studies? methodologies, research procedures, and employer characteristics. Research findings indicated that employers increasingly showed favorable attitudes toward individuals with disabilities and demonstrated willingness to hire workers with disabilities. Employers' previous experience with workers with disabilities was associated with positive employer attitudes. Secondly, 168 employers and 105 educators were surveyed regarding their perspectives on valued employability skills for entry-level employees with and without disabilities. The second study primarily focused on examining employers' perspectives of the most valued employability skill areas and specific employability skills as well as associated employer factors (i.e., respondents' genders and types of business/industry). Differences between employers' expectations for employees with disabilities and for those without disabilities were analyzed. The study results presented findings on important employability skills and discrepancies between rating for employees with and without disabilities were discussed, and reported the effects of respondent factors. Lastly, the third study investigated and compared both employers and educators' expectations on important employability skills. Study identified differences of ratings on important employability skills between employers and educators. Study also found out how they viewed differently on employability skills for employees with and without disabilities. To sum up, this dissertation revealed updated trends of employers' attitude toward workers with disabilities. It also identified critical employability skills viewed by employers and educators for entry-level workers with disabilities. The comparisons between employers and educators' perspectives provided information on what schools should include or emphasize in vocational preparation programs to prepare students with disabilities for future employment.Item Meta-analysis of Video Based Modeling Interventions for Individuals with Disabilities: Procedure, Participant, and Skill Specificity(2012-07-16) Mason, RoseThe purpose of the present research was to address gaps in the video based modeling (VBM) literature through the use of meta-analytic techniques to provide clarity and specificity regarding the practical utility of VBM for participants with disabilities. Two meta-analyses of published single-case VBM research were conducted. Improvement rate difference, an effect size measure, was utilized to analyze the fifty-six single-case studies. The purpose of study one was to determine if differential effects occurred based on the type of model utilized and variations in procedural implementation. In addition, the quality of research was evaluated. The purpose of study two was to determine if participant characteristics, intervention components by participant characteristics, and targeted outcome moderated the effectiveness of video modeling with other as model (VMO). Results of Study One indicated moderate to strong effects for both VMO and video self-modeling, however, when further disaggregated based on type of model utilized, VMO with adult as model demonstrated statistically significant superiority in terms of outcome effects. Results also indicated VBM with reinforcement demonstrated greater effects than when delivered alone or as part of a package. Additionally, the evaluation of quality of research indicated a tendency of the previously published VBM research not to evaluate treatment integrity. Study Two found that age and diagnosis moderate the effectiveness of VMO, although strong effects were found across levels for both moderators. VMO was found to be more effective for elementary age participants and participants with autism spectrum disorders. Additionally, VMO with reinforcement demonstrated statistically significant stronger effects for participants with ASD than when it is delivered alone or as part of a package. However, VMO delivered as part of a package was more potent for participants with developmental disabilities. Considering targeted outcomes, the results indicated strong effects across skill areas, however, VMO was found to be most impactful when utilized to improve play skills versus other measured skills. Implications related to the practical application of VBM for individuals with disabilities particularly in regards to treatment decision making were discussed. Additionally, implications for future research were addressed.Item The Mystery of the Situated Body: Finding Stability through Narratives of Disability in the Detective Genre(2013-07-15) Foreman, Adrienne CThe appearance, use, and philosophy of the disabled detective are latent even in early detective texts, such as in Arthur Conan Doyle?s canonical Sherlock Holmes series. By philosophy, I am referring to both why the detective feels compelled to detect as well as the system of detection the detective uses and on which the text relies. Because the detective feels incompatible with the world around him (all of the detectives I analyze in this dissertation are men), he is driven to either fix himself, the world, or both. His systematic approach includes diagnosing problems through symptomatology and removing the deficient aspect. While the detective narrative?s original framework assimilates bodies to medical and scientific discourses and norms in order to represent a stable social order, I argue that contemporary detective subgenres, including classical disability detective texts, hardboiled disability detective texts and postmodern disability detective texts, respond to this framework by making the portrayal of disability explicit by allocating it to the detective. The texts present disability as both a literary mechanism that uses disability to represent abstract metaphors (of hardship, of pity, of heroism) and a cultural construct in and of itself. I contend that the texts use disability to investigate what it means to be an individual and a member of society. Thus, I trace disability in detective fiction as it parallels the cultural move away from the autonomous individual and his participation in a stable social order and move towards the socially located agent and shifting situational values.