Dear Arielle
I'd suggest you also include a reflective critique of some of the
assumptions underlying your study. You might like to think about questions
like:
Why do we think that blind students need help with self-affirmation?
Is it an appropriate role for psychologists to help disabled people "adapt"
to their condition and make emotional adjustments based on models drawn from
research with non-disabled people?
How can we deconstruct the idea of "rehabilitation" which usually means
fitting disabled people into roles and activities designed by people who are
not disabled (though maybe the rehabilitation centre you know is controlled
and run by blind people).
What do we mean by "adaptive behaviour"? Why do we expect disabled people to
adapt to an environment of limited opportunities rather than expect
environments to change?
You might be surprised to learn that there is literature describing the
negative value of "rehabilitation" written by disabled activitsts.
If you are interested in following up these ideas you can look at some of
the debates on this list, or consult a handbook of disability studies. It
would be good to see a more critical approach to disability in a mainstream
psychology journal.
All the best
Deborah
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arielle M Silverman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 6:33 PM
Subject: Looking for Disability Statistics
> Hi all,
> I am a graduate student in social psychology at the University of
> Colorado. Recently I conducted a randomized field experiment testing the
> efficacy of a self-affirmation exercise in improving rehabilitation
> outcomes of blind students attending a rehabilitation center. The initial
> data are positive and I am in the process of writing it up for a
> mainstream psychology journal. I would like to describe the prevalence of
> disability in the population and the barriers to integration (unemployment
> etc.) in order to justify the importance of the work I did. However, as a
> psychologist I am not very familiar with the cross-disability literature.
> Could someone please point me to any relevant literature where I could
> find the following:
> -- The estimated prevalence of disabilities in the United States or
> worldwide;
> -- The estimated employment rate (or unemployment rate) for Americans with
> disabilities;
> -- or any literature supporting the positive value of rehabilitation or
> training in adaptive skills for fostering the integration and well-being
> of people with disabilities.
>
> Thanks and best,
> Arielle
>
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