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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a very common physical head injury that happens in an instant. These injuries can inaugurate a wide range of long-term impairments that vary widely between those that survive them. Using a blend of social scientific and contemporary Disability Studies theory, this paper traces how moderate-to-severe TBIs become disabilities through the daily lives and interactions of survivors, those closest to them, and their wider communities. The complex, shifting, and contextually dependent nature of what they term life 'with TBI' muddies and multiplies the acronym's original construction as a simple and knowable injury. The resulting confusion inaugurates a feedback loop between survivors' bodies and socialities that ultimately constitutes the injury as a complexly embodied disability. This process helps to productively expand the definition of disability to include other more complex and invisible conditions like TBI. This research studies a distinct kind of disability ("Traumatic Brain Injury") from a social perspective that has rarely been investigated. Disabilities like Traumatic Brain Injury affect and are changed by the social contexts, lives, and interactions of the disabled with those around them. Those that survive Traumatic Brain Injuries may not share any bodily or mental impairments, but they embody and perform the same disability. Traumatic Brain Injury is different across the individual, social, and political levels. This paper presents how those who may not fit within traditional definitions of disability can still be disabled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being the parent of a child with a disability and complex medical condition has been described as one of the most life-affirming, meaningful and challenging things a person can do. Co-ordinated supports are important to ensure the inclusion, participation and wellbeing of all family members. Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is designed to support Australians aged under 65 years who have a disability. Concerns have emerged regarding inequities in access to services provided within this scheme. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of families living outside urban areas and engaging within the scheme. Utilising interpretative phenomenological analysis, this research provides important insights into the contextual factors that influence the subjective wellbeing of all family members and the manner in which the market-based NDIS may produce inequities in wellbeing outcomes for families. This article looks in detail at the lived experiences of families navigating supports provided under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and other primary service systems in rural regions across Eastern Australia. Each family included within this study experienced multiple episodes of delays, feelings of isolation and fears that their family member was missing out on essential supports and services, despite having approved funding packages under the NDIS. All participants in this study highly regarded, valued and respected their children and worked to ensure their safety and wellbeing. Their frustration was not for their children but for the failure of the NDIS to demonstrate these values. This paper is an important contribution to research in disability studies, and also has the potential to influence further development in this field and in shaping the future of the NDIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract \nPoints of interest The notion that autistic individuals suffer from empathy deficiencies continues to be a widespread assumption, including in many areas of philosophy and cognitive science. In response to this, Damian Milton has proposed an interactional approach to empathy, namely the theory of the double empathy problem. According to this theory, empathy is fundamentally dependent on mutual reciprocity or salience rather than individual, cognitive faculties like theory of mind. However, the theory leaves open the question of what makes any salient interaction empathic in the first place. The aim of this paper is to integrate core tenets of the theory of the double empathy problem specifically with classical, phenomenological descriptions of empathy. Such an integration provides further conceptual refinement to the theory of the double empathy problem while recognizing its core tenets, but it also introduces important considerations of neurodiversity to classic, phenomenological descriptions of empathy. Dominant autism research continues to claim that autistic individuals lack empathy in some form or other. Critics of such claims argue that empathy is a two-way street where problems can emerge because of different people’s social experiences and expectations. In philosophy, the tradition known as phenomenology has long studied empathy by examining how empathy is experienced. Insights from phenomenology further clarify when and how empathy can break down between autistic and non-autistic people. By including autistic and other diverse perspectives, phenomenological studies of empathy stand to benefit significantly in nuance and depth. Dominant autism research continues to claim that autistic individuals lack empathy in some form or other.Critics of such claims argue that empathy is a two-way street where problems can emerge because of different people’s social experiences and expectations.In philosophy, the tradition known as phenomenology has long studied empathy by examining how empathy is experienced.Insights from phenomenology further clarify when and how empathy can break down between autistic and non-autistic people.By including autistic and other diverse perspectives, phenomenological studies of empathy stand to benefit significantly in nuance and depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research participants are crucial to the entire research enterprise, but they are still predominantly conceived as mostly passive, 'silent' partners in the field of research ethics. Participants generally have very limited opportunities to share their lived experiences of participation in research and their views about the ethics of research. This gap is particularly concerning for research participants whose agency is already undermined by unjust social structures, such as individuals living with mental illness. Our study investigates the perspectives on research of mental health research participants and mental health advocates in Canada. We found that many participants had positive experiences of participation in research and valued their experience. The positive impacts of research participation, however, depend the willingness of researchers to actively create an accessible and respectful research environment. People with mental illness who participate in research projects do not often get to talk about their experiences. We think that this is a mistake and that researchers should learn from them. We interviewed 14 research participants and individuals who work to defend the rights of people with mental illness. The research participants said that participating in research had made them feel good. It made them feel respected, valued, and listened to. Participants do not want to feel like "things" or "objects" behind a glass wall. They want to be treated as equals. This research is important because it shows that participating in research can be a positive experience for people with mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While internet use continues to increase amongst the general population, in comparison, adults with intellectual disabilities are still less likely to access the Internet and benefit from the opportunities it can offer. Non-intellectual disability perspectives and assumptions, which often view the Internet as a risk for those with intellectual disabilities, are considered over the everyday lived online and well-being experiences of adults with intellectual disabilities. In response, this study interviewed 8 participants with intellectual disabilities using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Seven constituents emerged: internet as a mirror; internet enables visibility and invisibility; internet as liberating; internet meets unmet needs; internet creates an active decision maker and expert; internet as friend and foe; and, the body connects to, and disconnects from, the Internet. The findings gave rise to new perspectives, recommendations, and adds to the existing literature on how to support adults with intellectual disabilities' enjoyable, safe and independent internet use. Participants with intellectual disabilities described feeling unsafe and restricted in their offline lives, but online they often felt safer and that they could do anything. Participants did not view their intellectual disability positively. Online they could keep their disabilities hidden from others, creating a variety of identities (creative, strong, protective and helpful) that they felt represented them more accurately. When the internet was described as a positive resource in life, this was linked to a sense of well-being with an identity emphasis. Additionally, findings point to examples of well-being in spatial, embodied, mood, sense of belonging with others and temporal ways. This study highlights how danger was negotiated by people with intellectual disabilities in similar ways to dangers in everyday life and how these skills are transferable to offline and online worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability affecting 1 in 10 people nationwide. Literature acknowledges the need for greater understanding of the educational needs of learners with dyslexia in UK Higher Education (HE). Research in this field often stems from neuropsychological viewpoints and neglects the perspectives of students. This study was designed to understand the lifelong learning experiences of students with dyslexia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen students. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: 'Managing Feelings of Inferiority', 'Adapting to the Learning Environment', and 'Experience of Learning Support'. Analysis highlighted the range of challenges students face throughout education. Findings suggest that HE institutions need to be more effective in creating an inclusive learning environment that supports this underrepresented group. This will facilitate a reduction in the social and emotional barriers to learning and educational attainment for this population. This article provides an in-depth understanding of the lifelong learning experiences of students with dyslexia in Great Britain. Students with dyslexia continue to experience social, emotional and academic barriers to learning. University undergraduates and postgraduates with dyslexia find it difficult to adjust to learning in HE but they have developed their own strategies to help. This research found that technology does not always meet the learning needs of individuals with dyslexia, and students in HE often do not use it. Research needs to understand why students are not using technology to support their learning, and determine how to improve it. Students in this study felt that their university needs to improve the learning support services available to them on campus, for example, one-to-one academic support and wellbeing drop-in services should be offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how formerly sighted Deaf individuals confront vision loss and grapple with adopting new identities as Deaf-Blind individuals. Co-researchers in this study analyze sighted Deaf culture and the resulting power dynamics that have relegated the Deaf-Blind body as inferior, revoking membership from sighted Deaf culture. From the perspective of 6 Deaf-Blind individuals, the balance of power within sighted Deaf culture is explored and solidified to reveal a hierarchy which categorizes the Deaf Disabled body in comparison to the sighted, Deaf normate. Members of the Deaf-Blind communities are beginning to develop their own culture which is separate from sighted Deaf culture and operates under different norms. Deaf-Blind communities reject the label of Deaf with a disability and have begun to take ownership of not only the definition of culture, but the modality in which they communicate. A majority of Deaf-Blind individuals lose vision in early adulthood, which means at some point, they were members of sighted Deaf culture and then become outcasts as a "disabled" body. The research indicates that Deaf culture actually has an unspoken hierarchy where power is concerned, an analysis that is not yet part of the academic discourse, particularly where Deaf Critical Theory is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]