Digital Literacy, Identity, and Academic Engagement Among Reading "Dis-Abled": A Theoretical Paper

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding the Construction of the Dis/abled Child Through Literacy, Literature, and Schooling: Critiques and Ways Forward

Abstract

This theoretical paper explores the intersections of digital literacy with identity and academic literacy engagement among adolescents who struggle to read in special education. We argue that the growing importance of digital media in the literate lives of students in special education impacts their identity as abled readers and writers. The potential impact of digital literacy is encompassing in four different ways: 1) digital literacy as a transformative practice; 2) repositioning the concept of disability as an identity within the print-based literacy practice; 3) supporting engagement in print-based literacy through digital media platform; and 4) empowering adolescents’ academic development.

Authors

• Eric Claravall, San Francisco State University

• Jill M. Castek, Portland State University