As autistic individuals grow into adulthood, they are much more likely to experience a need for employment-related skills, with research on these skills lacking relative to child-focused research. Accordingly, this dissertation examined existing literature on employment-related skill development and based on community consultation, developed…

Historically, minority students have been overrepresented in special education programming in the United States (Fletcher, 2014; Wright & Wright, 2021). This study describes how several external historical, theoretical, and practical factors beyond academic challenges impact special education qualification rates for minority students compared…

Faculty members play a crucial role in the development and success of students, especially students from minoritized populations. Institutions are trying to diversify their faculty to reflect their minoritized student population, but faculty with disabilities are neglected in this hiring. There has been little exploration of how the disability…

This dissertation and research study is dedicated to the exploration of "critical posthuman educational technology." Research in this study determines, evaluates, and considers educational technology in U.S. art museums through a wide-reaching survey and case study evaluations of the implementation of digital content creation in museums…

The purpose of this paper was to study the effectiveness of language acquisition using speaker instruction and listener instruction and examining the emergence of bidirectional intraverbals using a non-sense language. Current research suggests that speaker type instruction is more effective in aiding untrained relations (Contreras et al., 2020;…

Graduates who have disabilities experience difficulty finding their first job after completing college. The transition-age period of 18 to 30 is a stage of life when receiving vocational rehabilitation (VR) support is critical to increase chances of graduates with disabilities towards competitive employment and earnings. Current literature suggest…

This convergent parallel mixed methods study explored barriers to teaching disability and accessibility awareness in the early elementary classroom and assessed the impact of an instructional video on educators' current perceptions and future teaching practices. Through one-on-one, semi-structured interviews on Zoom and a pretest, intervention,…

Many special education (SPED) students are failing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) despite writing instruction provided by SPED teachers. The purpose of this study was to understand teachers' perceptions about why students were failing the literacy/writing test and document whether evidence-based assessment and writing practices…

In the early 1990s, the educational system in the U.S. began to change with the advent of publicly-operated charter schools. In recent years, there has been a surge in parents opting for this type of alternative educational setting to meet the needs of their students. This increase in enrollment did not preclude students with disabilities. This…

Autistic students are faced with ableism and oppressive practices daily in their school environments. Special educators can mitigate this problem by celebrating the neurodiversity of the students in their classroom. Utilizing a critical disability theory lens, I conducted an instrumental case study through observations and interviews with six…

Executive functions (EF) are a collection of cognitive domains governing task initiation, motor planning, attention, and goal-oriented action. Difficulties with EF have marked impacts on adaptive living skills, learning outcomes, and quality of life for people with cognitive and psychosocial disabilities, as well as the broader population. While…

Dual Language Learners (DLLs) with special needs have, historically, faced many cycles of integration and segregation. The formal educational system, in turn, has the potential to perpetuate exclusion or create inclusion and equitable spaces. This research looks at the individualized education programs' (IEPs) language goal outcomes of DLLs with…

Together, this dissertation describes the combined importance of visuality, pedagogy, and forces like power in deaf education. It documents a multimethod qualitative research design with case study and grounded theory methods to examine conflicting issues about "how" and "why" vision is used in deaf pedagogy. Initially,…

Students who are dually identified as English Language Learners (ELLs) and as students with disabilities have unique needs that can be addressed through differentiated instruction. There is a gap in the current literature on the experiences of special education teachers who differentiate instruction in their classrooms to meet the needs of ELLs…

As the culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student enrollment continues to grow exponentially in New York, the number of CLD students being inappropriately identified with disabilities also continues to grow at an alarming rate. This situation, labeled as disproportionality, is due to a variety of factors. One of the main factors is the…