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Purpose/Objective: Graduate students and faculty with disabilities are underrepresented in psychology and face many barriers in graduate education and training. Teaching is a major component of graduate training and faculty preparation, but there is a dearth of research on the teaching experiences of psychology graduate students with disabilities. The objective of this study was to explore the teaching experiences of psychology graduate students with disabilities. Research Method/Design: We conducted semistructured interviews with 12 disabled psychology graduate students who had teaching experience as part of their graduate programs. Interviews were analyzed using phenomenological coding. Results: Common themes among participants were lack of disability disclosure; lack of accommodations for teaching and guidance of how to receive them; and supportive and nonsupportive resources and mentors in their graduate teaching experiences. Conclusions/Implications: Disabled graduate student teachers often lack environments and resources where they can receive disability-specific support and accommodations for teaching. Faculty and programs should develop and promote disability-affirmative training cultures that actively support graduate student teachers with disabilities, including departmental cultures that de-stigmatize disability disclosure and accommodations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose/Objective: This work provides comprehensive analyses targeting the factor structure and dimensionality of the Disability Identity Development Scale (DIDS). In Forber-Pratt et al., 2020, disability was defined broadly to include individuals with visible or hidden disabilities across many disability groups (i.e., physical, intellectual, learning, or chronic illness). Research Method/Design: Retained items from previous exploratory factor analysis were administered to a sample of adults with disabilities (n = 1,126) ranging in age from 18-78 years. Confirmatory factor analytics (CFA) including traditional CFA, and bifactor confirmatory analyses were used to examine the dimensionality and structure of the DIDS. Results: Traditional CFA provided lack of evidence in support of the oblique four-factor structure previously reported. Bifactor confirmatory analysis revealed items on the DIDS are consistent with unidimensional, and to a lesser degree multidimensional solutions (i.e., items lacked a level of content diversity to substantiate a complex, reliable multifactor structure). Discussion/Conclusion: Analytic results on the DIDS revealed reasonable psychometric properties as a measure of disability identity. Our results support using a sum or total score of disability identity. Results of this work are an important contribution to a growing body of literature supporting, and investigating, disability identity development. Furthermore, the DIDS measure with its resulting composite score of disability identity has the potential to inform clinicians in the field of rehabilitation psychology as well as informing future targeted interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose/Objective: The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how adolescents conceptualize disability identity and what factors may influence adolescent disability identity development. Research Method/Design: These data were collected through semistructured in-depth interviews with 24 middle and high school adolescents with disabilities. The participants had a wide range of disabilities, including physical disabilities, learning disabilities, ADHD, Autism, and others. Analyses started with Hamilton's Rapid Assessment Process followed by identifying structural and in vivo codes using a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis tool to allow for multiple coders and memo writing across the research team. Results: The results indicate that adolescents are undergoing a heterogeneous and complex process to develop their disability identity. Additionally, the salience of the participants' disability identity often varied depending on the environmental context. Furthermore, social connections to peers with and without disabilities played an important role in the development of many participants' disability identities. Conclusions/Implications: These findings suggest that adolescents with disabilities are engaging in a multifaceted meaning-making process to develop a sense of disability identity. Rehabilitation Psychologists and other practitioners can support disabled adolescents by helping them to discuss and develop a positive disability identity. Furthermore, practitioners can help disabled adolescents successfully develop their disability identity in a variety of different settings and contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]