Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
Ellensburg
Event Website
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source
Start Date
15-5-2019
End Date
15-5-2019
Abstract
As a result of changing laws designed to create access to higher education, an increasing number of individuals with disabilities are attending college. However, post-secondary outcomes of individuals with disabilities continue to lag behind their non-disabled peers. While there is research on the needs of students with disabilities once in college, we know little about the social factors shaping their decisions to attend college. Likewise, over the past two decades, there has been a growing prevalence of adoptive families, including adoptions across racial/ethnic groups. Despite the increasing visibility of adoption, particularly transracial adoption, there is little research on adoptee’s decisions to attend college. The absence of research on the decisions to attend college among international adoptees who have a disability is even more pronounced. Understanding their experiences will provide additional insight into the support services they need in high school, when thinking about and planning for college, and once they enter college. Using online interviews with four international adoptees who have a visible, physical disability, and a grounded theory approach, in this exploratory study, I investigate the following questions: (1) What stories do disabled adoptees tell about their pathways to college? (2) What social opportunities and barriers do their stories reveal about their pathways? I believe that certain visible, physical disabilities and/or racial identities will be experienced as barriers to college, but that, these barriers will be mediated by other social factors, such as family characteristics and support.
Recommended Citation
Beaulaurier, Kaily Micaela, "International Disabled Adoptees Path to Higher Education" (2019). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 73.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Oralpres/73
Department/Program
Accessibility Studies
International Disabled Adoptees Path to Higher Education
Ellensburg
As a result of changing laws designed to create access to higher education, an increasing number of individuals with disabilities are attending college. However, post-secondary outcomes of individuals with disabilities continue to lag behind their non-disabled peers. While there is research on the needs of students with disabilities once in college, we know little about the social factors shaping their decisions to attend college. Likewise, over the past two decades, there has been a growing prevalence of adoptive families, including adoptions across racial/ethnic groups. Despite the increasing visibility of adoption, particularly transracial adoption, there is little research on adoptee’s decisions to attend college. The absence of research on the decisions to attend college among international adoptees who have a disability is even more pronounced. Understanding their experiences will provide additional insight into the support services they need in high school, when thinking about and planning for college, and once they enter college. Using online interviews with four international adoptees who have a visible, physical disability, and a grounded theory approach, in this exploratory study, I investigate the following questions: (1) What stories do disabled adoptees tell about their pathways to college? (2) What social opportunities and barriers do their stories reveal about their pathways? I believe that certain visible, physical disabilities and/or racial identities will be experienced as barriers to college, but that, these barriers will be mediated by other social factors, such as family characteristics and support.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Oralpres/73
Faculty Mentor(s)
Griff Tester