Ability and Identity Development

1. Ability and Identity Development Katie Mey Western Illinois University

2. overview • Participants • Overall Themes • Application To Theory • Points to Consider • Limitations • Closing Thoughts

3. Participants • Interviewee 1 • White, female, traditional age college student, full time status at a 4 year institution, mid to low mid SES, small town/rural context • Physical impairment- utilizes a manual wheel chair for mobility • Interviewee 2 • White, female, just above traditional college age, non-student, mid to low SES, small town/rural context • Intellectual impairment- sub average intellectual ability/intelligence level for same age peers without disabilities • Interviewee 3 • White, female, traditional age college student, part time status at a 2 year/technical institution, small town/rural context • Physical impairment- utilizes a manual wheel chair for mobility • Interviewee 4* • White, male, traditional age college student, full time status at a 4 year institution, mid to high mid SES?, small town context? • Traumatic brain injury- difficulty learning mathematics, sub average executive functioning skills & sub average executive functioning level for same age peers

4. Abelism- “pervasive system of discrimination and exclusion that oppresses people [with]…disabilities on…individual, institutional, and societal/cultural levels” (Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F. M., Patton, L. D., & Renn, K. A., 2010, p. 198)

5. Overall themes • Keen awareness of themselves as different, to come extent • Social acceptability of attribution of “less than” • Acceptable rationale for discrimination still, broadly speaking • “I was told that the only way to go into forensics was to go into law enforcement and be a detective, and I can’t do the physical requirements of that because…’what if somebody gets killed on a mountain?’” (Interviewee 1) • “The advisor was pretty straight with me…she pretty much told me she didn’t think the state would let me take my certification exam…The only place that will hire me is camp. I tell people that I am in a wheelchair because it is very important to me…Its like oh, we can’t help you, click.” (interviewee 3) • Limited experience with others who share their social identity at even the broadest level • “For the longest time I thought I was the only person out there with a disability. Camp changed that…it was confusing for me” (Interviewee 3) • I was the only person in my environment like me

6. overall THEMES • Treatment as undesirable, inconvenience, child-like, or inspiration frequently interchangeably • [When I first started using the chair]”…people used to ask me if they could help me…push me over there or do things for me…it was like an every day thing” (Interviewee 1) • “People see me do things and they tell me I’m an inspiration… I don’t even have time to shave my legs in the winter, I don’t have time to be an inspiration.” (Interviewee 1) • “My upper body is more adult…my legs are smaller…I am short, but I am clearly an adult…Parents often assume I am a camper, even in a staff shirt” (Interviewee 3) • I don’t like it when he tells me what to do…he’s so bossy…I am a good player (Interviewee 2)

7. Application to Theory:Assigned Readings • The “Simultaneity” of Identities (Holvino, 2012) • Multiple, mutually influencing, simultaneously experienced identities. • Interviewee 1- Multiple identities are present, none primary • Interviewee 3- Some people “Let their disability run their life. They should run their life because its their life.” • Disabled Students in Higher Education; Negotiating Identity(Riddell, Tinklin, and Wilson, 2005) • Stigma associated with social identity • Avoidance/non-acceptance of the label despite self-identification. • Interviewee 3- does not identity with most others who have disabilities • Interviewee 2- identifies with her friends, wants to be treated as ‘normal’

8. Application to theory:Other models • LGBT identity theories • Not typically a group that is born into a family that shares identity • D’Augelli’s Model of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Development (1994) • Exiting heterosexual identity • Developing a personal lesbian/gay/bisexual identity • Developing a lesbian/gay/bisexual social identity • Becoming a lesbian/gay/bisexual offspring? • Developing a lesbian/gay/bisexual intimacy status • Developing a lesbian/gay/bisexual community?

9. Application to theory:Other models • Latino/a identity theory • View relationship to identity group as non-hierarchical and related to individual needs/survival • Latina and Latino Ethnoracial Identity Orientation (Ferdman and Gallegos, 2012) • Latino-integrated • Latino-identified • Sub-group-identified • Latino as other • Undifferentiated/denial • White-identified

10. Points to consider • Broad umbrella social identity • Vast, vast different in the characteristics that ‘place you’ in this group • Unique status of social identity • My own realization of the indoctrination I still harbor

11. limitations • Small, unrepresentative data set • Length of interviews • End-point oriented or typicality based premise of theory

12. Closing thoughts • What does the pervasiveness of negative representations of this identity and the level of acceptability of discrimination mean for the identity development of individuals who might identify with this group? About the development of theories related to this social identity? • What does it mean for institutions that this group of individuals to be gaining increasing access to higher education? • What kind of things might the recognition of this presence of this social identity group change about how you practice? What might it change about our campus(es)?

13. References Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F. M., Patton, L. D., & Renn, K. A. (2010). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice. Sanfrancisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Ferdman & Gallegos. (2012). Latina and Latino Ethnoracial Identity Orientation. Wijey & Jackson. New perspectives on racial identity development. 2nd ed. New York: NYU Press. Holvino. (2012). The “Simultaneity” of Identities. Wijey & Jackson. New perspectives on racial identity development. 2nd ed. New York: NYU Press. Johnson, H. M. (2006). Too late to die young: Nearly true tales from a life. Macmillan. Riddell, S., Tinklin, T., & Wilson, A. (2005). Disabled students in higher education: perspectives on widening access and changing policy. Routledge.