Nothing About Them Without Them: Understanding Disability Awareness and Identity in Adolescents With Learning Disabilities

• In Event: 68.042 - Narrative Perspectives for Negotiating In/between Dis/ability, Labels, and Schooling

Abstract

Frequent discussion in the field of special education and related disability research leaves behind a discussion of student identity development and meaning making after assignment of a highly stigmatizing label. This study utilizes extant knowledge on racial identity and adolescent development, sociocultural identity theories and a DisCrit lens, in order to conceptualize adolescent disability awareness. Semi-structured interviews with four freshman males were conducted. All students were aware of the stigma of their disability label, though each negotiated this stigma differently. Each student conceptualized disability according to both the medical and social model. This study suggests students’ deep knowledge, awareness of, and conscious behaviors to avoid disability labels and identity, frequently unacknowledged or understood by adults in the context of school.

Author

• Carlyn Mueller, Vanderbilt University