Search

Increasing community awareness and knowledge about environmental problems is the primary goal of environmental education. This study explores the best practices of the Youth for Environment in Schools--Organization (YES-O) in selected schools in the National Capital Region, Philippines. A qualitative study involving interviews and focus group discussions directed the collection and analysis of data. The study discovered that the implementation of the YES-O program was successful due to the following best practices: (a) personal advocacy, (b) resource availability, (c) flexibility, (d) integrated school efforts, (e) participatory approach, and (f) monitoring and evaluation strategies, which were all supported by the emerging themes. Meanwhile, capacity building and strong networks emerged as important themes supporting the YES-O program implementation in secondary schools. The schools can continue their practices to sustain the implementation of the program. However, schools should take into account certain indicators that require improvement to enhance their performance. These may include strengthening their networking, linkages, and partnership strategies to better engage and synergize environmental education given the mandated programs, projects, and activities of the YES-O program implementation.

This survey study investigated understanding and use of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), self-advocacy, self-determination, and campus resources by college students with disabilities. Thirty-one students registered with a student disability office at a Midwestern state university completed an anonymous survey. Thirty-two percent of participants reported that they knew how to advocate for their own education before beginning college. A majority of participants displayed strong understanding of self-determination, self-advocacy, and campus resources, but reported a weak understanding about the ADA. Participants reported stronger agreement on their use of self-determination and self-advocacy skills than on campus resources. Their lowest score was for their use of self-advocacy skill when their legal rights had to be voiced. These students' lack of understanding of their legal rights and limited self-advocacy skills in protecting their legal rights suggest implications for both transition services in high school and support services at the college level.

Postsecondary students with disabilities underutilize career services (CS) and report systemic barriers when trying to do so. Disability resource (DR) professionals rarely have the experience to advise students on employment issues such as internship opportunities, disclosure during interviews, and how to obtain workplace accommodations. Research recommends cross-training for professionals in both offices to facilitate more effective career development. The provision of accessible and disability-informed CS can strengthen students' preparation for workplace success, thereby improving persistent gaps in employment outcomes between college graduates with and without disabilities. This practice brief describes a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) involving CS and DR professionals from multiple Midwestern universities who shared strategies, challenges, and evaluation outcomes in a collaborative manner that can be replicated on other campuses.

This qualitative, descriptive study explored the experiences of college students with Deaf, deaf, and Hard of Hearing (D/d/HH) hearing difficulties within online learning environments (OLEs). This study used an inclusive and equitable theoretical framework of connectivism to address audism and the marginalization of college students with D/d/HH. The LIFE-R section's "After LIFE" semi-structured interview protocol collected data from 15 college students with hearing difficulties in OLEs recruited from the National Deaf Center-Listserve. The 12 themes highlighted that without extrinsic support, participants perceived inequitable accessibility of technology, hearing devices, or resources. In closing the research gap, the study's findings indicated that (1) college students with D/d/HH were underrepresented, had unique hearing differences, and needed consistent access to hearing assistance technology and resources; (2) connectivism extrinsic support: Provided equitable accessibility and a positive impact on self-advocacy and autonomy, engagement and emotions, and availability and effectiveness of technology-assisted hearing devices or resources, and (3) Audism: Provided inequitable accessibility and a negative impact on self-advocacy and autonomy to utilize technology hearing devices or resources, engagement, and emotions (i.e., frustration, anger, alienation, and isolation). The recommendations for improving accessible and effective technology hearing devices or resources utilizing a connectivism framework, implementing policies, best practices, professional development, and training. Future studies should explore students with difficulties hearing in OLEs without a medical diagnosis, intersectional identities, and larger sample sizes.

Students with disabilities are an increasing subpopulation in higher education. Recently, research has put an emphasis on students' voices to explore their academic learning experiences, as well as the learning strategies they use to overcome learning barriers. This study aimed to investigate the academic learning experiences of students with disabilities in college or graduate studies and the learning strategies they used when faced with insufficient or delayed support. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to gather data from three online focus groups, with a total of 10 participants. The results demonstrated three themes: experiences or issues related to university resources and accommodations, building influence through advocacy and education, and being an independent learner. Some participants continued to face academic learning challenges despite their active seeking of accommodations and support. Some participants utilized study strategies, especially when support was inadequate or not immediately provided. This study highlighted the urgent need for higher education institutions to establish support services and resources for all students. Related discussions and implications are presented.

Teachers of color face marginalization and microaggressions that their White counterparts do not have to face. African American teachers experience microaggressions pathologizing their cultural values and communication styles, cultural/ethnic insensitivity, an ascription of their intelligence, and being treated as second-class citizens) that are hurtful, undermining, and disparaging (Brown, 2019). Asian American teachers face gendered, racial, and sexualized expectations on their campuses (Endo, 2015). A study of Latina bilingual teachers revealed that they felt alienated from their colleagues, had larger workloads, and did not have access to support (Amos, 2016). Teachers of color experience inequalities, microaggressions, and marginalization that impact their experiences as teachers (Brown, 2019; Amos, 2016; Endo, 2015). The fifteen participants' responses generated cultural advocacy as the recurring theme. The findings revealed that the participants created networks with other teachers of color, engaged in self-advocacy and prayer, and chose to ignore microaggressions. Several stated that they decided to engage in race conversations to educate their White peers and foster understanding and empathy. While many felt they were often silenced and marginalized, they continued to maintain their professionalism while working in predominately White K-12 environments.

Background: Inclusive research has sidelined discussion of theoretical issues with researchers with intellectual/learning disabilities. This is a situation which the Big Ideas initiative sought to change. Between 2021 and 2023, the Open University, Leipzig University and the University of Koblenz organised nine workshops to explore influential theories in disability research. The objective was to share a theory (Big Idea) that sheds light on disability with self-advocates and discuss how it relates to their experience. By making theories accessible and discussing how they relate to lived experience, we aimed to inform self-advocates and activist researchers about key concepts in disability, deepen their capacity for research and campaigning, and better equip them to activate for change. Methods: The online workshops were evaluated by observers. These observations were used by an inclusive group of activist researchers as the basis for an overall evaluation of the project. Findings: People with learning disabilities can engage with complex theories if these are presented accessibly alongside opportunities for reflective discussion. Input from self-advocates helps to broaden and deepen theoretical understanding. An unanticipated but important finding was that the Big Ideas workshops created a new space in which academics and self-advocates could learn together as equals. Conclusions: Making theory accessible and easier to understand is both possible and valuable.

Every year, an increasing number of autistic youth enter a complex and underfunded adult service system after graduating from high school. Executive function (EF) challenges commonly co-occur with autism, especially related to flexible problem-solving and planning, and are linked to poor outcomes in post-secondary education and employment. The educational system is the primary service access point for autistic youth; however, evidence-based practices are rarely used to support them, and none exist to support pivotal EF skills in transition-age autistic youth. To meet this need, we developed "Unstuck & On Target: Ages 14-22," a school-based curriculum designed to increase independent, flexible problem-solving, planning, and self-advocacy skills in transition-age youth. We describe the iterative development of the "Unstuck: 14-22" curriculum and present implementation outcomes from a school-based trial. Ten schools, from which we enrolled 55 autistic 9th-12th graders with IQ [greater than or equal to] 80 were randomized to treatment as usual (TAU) or "Unstuck: 14-22" delivered by school staff. Teachers taught 25 lessons over a school year and provided implementation-related feedback on each lesson, which we used to revise curriculum content and materials. All "Unstuck: 14-22" schools taught the curriculum in its entirety, and teachers delivered it with high fidelity. Feasibility, acceptability, and satisfaction were similarly high. Findings indicate that "Unstuck: 14-22" could help build educators' capacity to provide targeted treatment to autistic youth in schools, which could be more widely accessed than clinic-based care. Trial registration NCT03199937, https://clinicaltrials.gov

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often face societal barriers to accessing employment due to stigma and discrimination. For people with IDD who have an employment history, little is known about their experiences in accessing employment opportunities. Self-determination behaviors are considered an integral component to a successful adulthood, yet there is limited research that gives voice to people with IDD describing their self-determination and experiences with employment. This study used qualitative content analysis to examine self-determination behaviors in employment experiences of 18 adults with disabilities. Participants provided clear examples of self-determined behaviors which benefited their navigation in work and life. Participants shared advice for other adults with IDD on how to attain employment. Implications for future research and practices are provided.

Research consistently documents the negative postsecondary outcomes of autistic individuals. Identifying facilitators and barriers to obtaining and maintaining employment is imperative to improve postsecondary outcomes. Autism diagnosis disclosure at work may serve as a facilitator or barrier to obtaining and maintaining employment, but little is known about the lived experiences of individuals on the spectrum regarding diagnosis disclosure at work. To ascertain why autistic individuals choose to pursue disclosure or choose not to disclose at work, how they disclose, and the consequences of that disclosure, a state-of-the-art literature review was conducted. Ten studies met the final inclusion criteria and were synthesized to provide guidance to autistic individuals, families, and professionals who support autistic individuals' transition to employment.

This research explores how adolescent females who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience secondary education in England and make sense of their identity. Within schools, responsibility for supporting this population is placed in the hands of teachers, though prior research suggests that teachers feel underconfident in their ability to do so. Informed by a notion from the disability rights movement 'nothing about us, without us' (Charlton, "Nothing about us without us: disability oppression and empowerment." Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), this study places the voice of people with ADHD at the centre of research. Using an interpretivist approach, qualitative data was gathered through unstructured interviews with five participants and was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings suggested that participants' experiences of education and identity formation were shaped by internal cognitive differences in skills relating to executive function (EF) and sensory differences. The implications of social construction of the ADHD label had an impact, both on how participants understood their identities, and how teaching staff were reported to respond to ADHD-traits which participants felt they had little control over. Participants reported differences in their perceived ability to self-advocate and described experiences of attempting to adapt their ADHD-traits to reduce the risk of social or educational sanction in response to their differences.

Recent trends suggest that autistic young adults are increasingly accessing postsecondary education than in years past. However, these students often face unique challenges that negatively impact their college experience resulting in high dropout. The Mentoring, Organization and Social Support for Autism Inclusion on Campus (MOSSAIC) Program is a peer-mentorship college transition program intended to support autistic students with executive functioning, social, and self-advocacy skills. This study investigated the experiences of 13 autistic mentees and 12 non-autistic mentors enrolled in the MOSSAIC program. Program feedback was collected using semi-structured interviews in order to understand student experiences, highlight benefits, and identify areas of improvement. Participants reported a general positive experience and improved skills in the domains of socialization, executive functioning, academic performance, and professional development. The most common suggestion for the program was the inclusion of autistic peer mentors. Mentees noted difficulty relating with non-autistic peers and feeling burdened with the need to educate their mentor on how to support autistic adults. These data provide valuable insight into how colleges can better improve support for autistic college students to ensure postsecondary success. Future peer mentorship programs should consider recruiting neurodiverse mentors from diverse backgrounds to improve congruence between mentor and mentee identities.

Early childhood teaching is complex, caring, relational work. In enacting an ethic of care, early childhood teachers often focus on extending care to others, and overlook including themselves in a circle of care. This can negatively impact on teacher well-being and ultimately lead to teacher burnout. This paper draws on a project that explored twelve teachers' experiences of the practice of mindful self-compassion using a methodology of mindful inquiry, a qualitative approach that includes elements of mindfulness, care, and hermeneutic phenomenology. Findings of the study identified that the practice of mindful self-compassion supported teachers to enact an ethic of care, which includes extending care, receiving care, and engaging in self-care. Being mindfully self-compassionate supported the teachers to engage in intentional caring practices that fostered relationships and supported the well-being of children and their colleagues, and empowered the teachers to advocate for themselves, their colleagues, and children. The paper argues that mindful self-compassion practice supports and sustains early childhood teachers in their caring role. When carers are included in a circle of care, then the reciprocal and inclusive nature of an ethic of care can be more fully realised. Implications are discussed for initial teacher education, teaching practice, early childhood leaders and policy makers.

In recent years, an increasing number of deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) undergraduates have chosen to study in STEM fields and pursue careers in research. Yet, very little research has been undertaken on the barriers and inclusive experiences often faced by D/HH undergraduates who prefer to use spoken English in research settings, instead of American Sign Language (ASL). To identify barriers and inclusive strategies, we studied six English speaking D/HH undergraduate students working in research laboratories with their eight hearing mentors, and their three hearing peers sharing their experiences. Three researchers observed the interactions between all three groups and conducted interviews and focus groups, along with utilizing the Communication Assessment Self-Rating Scale (CASS). The main themes identified in the findings were communication and environmental barriers in research laboratories, creating accessible and inclusive laboratory environments, communication strategies, and self-advocating for effective communication. Recommendations for mentors include understanding the key elements of creating an inclusive laboratory environment for English speaking D/HH students and effectively demonstrating cultural competence to engage in inclusive practices.

Background: A multi-phase Canadian study was conducted as part of a large-scale community and academic research partnership focused on understanding and improving the employment experiences of people with intellectual disabilities. Method: This multi-method study utilized a sequential approach, using findings from qualitative interviews (n = 28) to inform an online survey (n = 149). Participants were invited to share their experiences with paid employment or with persons with intellectual disabilities. Results: Thematic analysis of data across interview and survey findings resulted in six themes: (1) assumptions and attitudes, (2) knowledge and awareness, (3) accessibility of processes, (4) use of accommodations, (5) workplace relationships, and (6) supports and resources. Conclusions: A holistic and systemic approach has the potential to improve inclusive employment experiences of people with intellectual disabilities. Action is needed mainly at the policy and employer level to reduce barriers and improve on facilitating measures reinforced by the themes shared in this study.

Administrative assistants within the higher education system are a vital part of universities, including supporting students, faculty, and administrators. Although administrative assistants are essential to a college or university, they often lack recognition and salary support for their contributions. This applied qualitative study seeks to uncover some of the most unseen staff in higher education. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the experiences of women administrative assistants within higher education in the United States. The data of this study reveal three findings: (1) administrative assistants encounter challenges in losing their capacity to speak up; (2) receive low pay despite the increasing responsibilities placed upon them; and (3) maneuver complicated demands from faculty members. To improve how administrative assistants are supported and recognized, recommendations are provided for higher education institution leadership.

Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) programs are interdisciplinary, graduate-level training programs that seek to promote improved outcomes for individuals with disabilities and their families. Many of these programs include individuals with disabilities as members of the self-advocacy discipline. In this study, 10 self-advocate trainees were interviewed to provide insight into the value of including self-advocates in training and the kinds of accommodations and supports that facilitated their success and inclusion. Interviewees endorsed the importance of including self-advocates in LEND programs. Although several accommodations were discussed as helpful, interpersonal supports from faculty and peers were equally important in ensuring their success and inclusion in LEND. The findings from this study provide support for the expansion of self-advocacy as a formal discipline in LEND programs.

There is a great need for education and training about neurodiversity due to the rapid increase of neurodivergent students enrolling in postsecondary educational programs. As neurodivergent professionals, we offer a look at the common myths and misunderstandings that plague neurodivergent students as well as highlight the strengths neurodivergent students bring to the classroom. We explain typical challenges and barriers to success neurodivergent students face as well as ways faculty and staff can support neurodivergent students.

All counseling graduate students participate in fieldwork experiences and engage in supervision to promote their professional development. School counseling trainees complete these experiences in the unique context of elementary and secondary school settings. As such, school counselors-in-training (SCITs) may seek to approach supervision with specific strategies tailored for the roles, responsibilities, and dispositions required of competent future school counselors. This article suggests practical strategies for SCITs, including engaging in reflection; navigating feelings of vulnerability in supervision; developing appropriate professional dispositions for school counseling practice; and practicing self-advocacy, broaching, and self-care. Counselor educators can share these strategies to help students identify their needs for their field experiences and prepare for their professional careers as school counselors.

Inclusive research advances the right of people with lived experience with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be involved in all phases of the research process. From an implementation science perspective, a critical component to inclusive research is addressing how research-based practices are adopted, implemented, and sustained in real-world contexts by real-world implementers--who in the context of this special issue are people with lived experience of disability. The purpose of this article is to advance inclusive approaches in the implementation of research-based practices in disability services and supports by highlighting strategies used by an innovative organization that supports self-advocates to implement research-based practices in disability supports and services.

School counsellors are the main drivers of change in creating a multicultural environment for all students. This study used structural equation modelling to investigate directional relationships among self-efficacy, self-advocacy and multicultural counselling competence in a sample of school counsellors (N = 306). The data were collected from 306 practising school counsellors in the US. The results suggested that self-advocacy was statistically related to self-efficacy, in turn self-efficacy was associated with multicultural counselling competence. Structural model indicated that self-advocacy had a strong indirect effect on multicultural counselling competence mediated by self-efficacy. Accordingly, the findings implicate that school counsellors could start with smaller and realistic projects in working with diverse school populations as their positive experiences in this area could increase their ability to advocate for multicultural school environments.

This narrative inquiry aimed to re-story the experiences of Paulina, a blind music education major, as she navigated her degree program at a large university. While scholars have begun to document the experiences of students who are blind or visually impaired in both PK-12 settings and during student teaching, no known study has explored the experience of a blind preservice student during their music education coursework. Utilizing critical disability studies as a lens, this narrative inquiry utilized the three commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place to highlight Paulina's experience. Data included interviews, memos from all three researchers, emails and texts, conversations at a research conference, and informal conversations. Paulina's story centered around three themes: sight is mandatory here; the hope, promise, and failure of support; and the emotional toll and physical consequences. Implications from this study may inform preservice preparation programs as well as offer insights regarding combating ableism in any musical space.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the experiences of newly resettled refugee-background high school students participating in the Teen Response program, a community-based initiative to assist refugee-background adolescents (RBAs) in navigating educational and career opportunities in the midwestern USA. Design/methodology/approach: Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined twenty-two RBAs through survey and focus groups. Findings: The findings reveal significant growth and transformation in the students' self-efficacy and advocacy skills. This growth underscores the critical role of social support and community engagement in helping RBAs, empowering them to advocate for themselves and others in pursuing educational and career goals. Originality/value: This study contributes new insights into the community-based support programs for RBAs, focusing on enhancing self-efficacy and advocacy. It offers valuable implications for developing effective support frameworks and recommends future research on these approaches.

During the past decade, numerous postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disability have emerged as have standards to improve the quality of those programs. We used the Think College Standards for Inclusive Higher Education to develop a family survey to evaluate and improve programs. Overall, family responses were positive for most of the standards and indicated that students gained self-advocacy, technology and employment skills. Families indicated that we can improve on two standards: coordination/collaboration with adult services, and career development. Perspectives from families of current and past students provide critical information that enhances the quality of postsecondary programs for students with ID.

Youth with and at risk for disabilities served in alternative education settings frequently struggle with the writing process, which impedes their ability to communicate ideas and opinions with others. Providing explicit teaching of a writing strategy is necessary for this population of youth. This study examined the effects of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) with self-determination skills on self-advocacy-focused writing probes (e.g., persuasive) for adolescent female youth in a juvenile justice setting. Emphasis was placed on teaching youth how to use persuasive writing as a tool to self-advocate for things they want or need. The SRSD instructional approach was investigated using a multiple-probe-across-participants design to evaluate the effects. Visual analyses indicated a functional relation between SRSD with self-determination instruction and youth's writing skills. All youth demonstrated an increase in organizational quality and self-advocacy in writing from baseline to independent practice. Limitations to the current study and future directions are discussed.

Self-advocacy is a critical predictor of actual physical activity participation for children and adolescents with disabilities. Despite its reference within national standards for health and physical education, few practitioners are purported to promote self-advocacy among their students warranting the need for evaluation. However, no self-advocacy inventory exists for children and adolescents with robust psychometrics properties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the content and face validity for the Physical Activity Self-Advocacy Inventory (PASAI) within children and adolescents with and without disabilities. Experts in the fields of health and physical education (N = 12) participated in this Delphi study. Once experts established the content/face validity for the PASAI, children and adolescents (N = 18) provided feedback on the PASAI to further refine the questions and support comprehension/relevance for the target population. After the first round of questions, experts' average feedback was a 3.99 out of 5.00 across all items. Due to low scores and based upon experts' suggestions, four questions were deleted, and one question was added. After round two, experts' average ratings increased to 4.8 out of 5.00. The PASAI appears to have reasonable content/face validity properties per expert- and population-based feedback. Future research should vet additional psychometric properties of PASAI scores.

Background: Negative attitudes remain a major barrier to the equality of people with disability, especially when coupled with the lack of autonomy imposed on many people. This paper analyses how disability self-advocacy groups seek to change community attitudes and work towards systemic change by mobilising knowledge from their lived experience. Methods: The paper applies a cycle of praxis community development approach (a cycle of experience, learning and reflection, synthesis and planning, and implementation and review) to conceptualise and analyse their activities. The methods were a desktop document search, focus groups and reflective analysis with members of two self-advocacy groups. Findings: A synthesised data analysis found that applying the four-part community development framework was useful to understand the practice and the purpose of work by self-advocacy groups to change attitudes. The analysis also demonstrates the benefits for advocates and codesigned activities to intentionally apply the cycle of praxis model to guide their future efforts to change attitudes. Conclusions: The research provides evidence that self-advocacy groups achieve sustained impacts on attitudes in the community, beyond the direct benefit to their members. Government investment in self-advocacy has potential to leverage wider system change in attitudes to achieve policy goals for the rights of people with disability. Methodologically, the research also has implications for the benefit of inclusive roles in reflective analysis to understand the lived experience of how practices contribute to system change. The design is an opportunity for inclusive researchers to intentionally incorporate reflective analysis into research processes.

This study examined the dimensions of the structure-agency dialectic embedded in students' embodied narratives of their science experiences. As three Black high school students with developed dancer identities used what I have named "ethnodance" to author and narrate their evolving science identity, I looked for structures that hindered or supported their development as well as their agentic choices, resistance, and advocacy. I present an empirical illustration of dimensions of the structure-agency dialectic embedded in students' ethnodances and reflection. Building on the consideration that for students whom a meaningful part of social life includes movement and dance, the theoretical argument frames ethnodance as an embodied narrative, dance as a form of cultural expression and social life for some Black youth, and identities-in-narratives as a window into students' agentic power to disrupt normative science ideologies and carve a place for themselves in science. Furthermore, students' ethnodances conveyed how changes to the science course sequence, physics discourse, and expectations from trusted adults limited or hindered their participation in science, and self-advocacy, choice, and resistance constructed, de-constructed, or re-constructed their competence in science.

In this paper, the authors draw on interview and observational data generated with Black teachers at a public high school in the Black Belt to describe resistance. This work is situated in prior theorizing about pedagogies of resistance (Jaramillo and Carreon, 2014; Patel, 2016; Love, 2019; Givens, 2021) to describe how teachers resisted through authenticity and vulnerability, displayed courage in the curriculum, and supported students' development of a self-advocacy practice. The study is further framed with literature about the legacy of Black teachers, Black teachers' practices, and teacher-student relationships.

School counselors and principals have many shared responsibilities within PK-12 schools to better meet students' social/emotional, academic, and career and college readiness needs. School counselor-principal collaboration can promote the success of PK-12 students, staff, and the overall school environment. Within the area of school counselor-principal collaboration, more research is needed regarding the implementation of collaboration methods between the two professions at pre-service levels. Due to this need, we conducted an extensive literature review to examine the developments and outcomes of school counselor-principal collaboration. Based on the review of 33 articles, the following themes emerged within the literature. These themes focus on increased individual and group self-efficacy of school counselors and administrators, the importance of school counselor-principal collaboration at the pre-service level, the assignment of non-counseling duties resulting in school counselor burnout, the need for self-advocacy of school counselors, and the relationship of positive school climate and school counselor-principal collaboration.

Using data from a grounded theory study with 59 college students with disabilities, this article documents the complex process of developing self-advocacy during the transition from K--12 to post-secondary school settings. This article draws on rich student narratives to illuminate the nuanced self-advocacy processes that college students with disabilities adopted as they transitioned from extensive K-12 school-based and familial supports to more independent higher education contexts. Our findings point to evolving relationships students had with their parents/caregivers as they transitioned into college. The process of learning to self-advocate was also shaped by bureaucratic collegiate contexts that required students to develop new levels of self-awareness, assertiveness, and understanding of their legal rights regarding access to collegiate accommodations and resources.

Accessible and inclusive participation in sport can provide significant physical, psychological, and social benefits to Deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) athletes. To understand how to facilitate these benefits, the researchers explored the lived physical education and sport experiences of D/HH collegiate athletes. Six athletes representing six sports were recruited and interviewed. Utilizing an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach to guide data collection, analysis, and interpretation, the researchers found five major themes: Self-Advocating for Awareness, Finding Meaningful Conversations, Overcoming Challenges, Seeking Community Connection, and Escaping Through Physical Activity. These themes illustrate the influence of accessibility and inclusion on the participants' sport experiences as well as the impact of the disability awareness of their coaches and peers. D/HH athletes and their coaches and teammates should work to overcome barriers to accessibility and inclusion to ensure the maximum benefit of being on a college sports team.

We sought to understand barriers and facilitators to academic engagement among student parents at six community colleges, through in-depth interviews with student parents, staff, and faculty members (n = 49). Using a grounded theory approach, we found parents were expected to repeatedly self-advocate and request accommodations such as for extended childcare hours, food subsidies, and assignment deadlines. This burden was either constrained or relieved by 1) student parents' strengths and strategies, 2) campus structures and groups operating collectively or in silos, and 3) the way faculty, staff, and campus programs responded to student parents' needs. Community colleges can reduce the burden on students to request accommodations by presenting clear policies, streamlining resources to student parents directly, and normalizing their use.