Journals @ Ontario Tech
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Crossing Boundaries: My Self-Directed Learning with Cerebral Palsy in China and Beyond
No full textIn China, family remains the default mode of care for people with disabilities. It forms an exclusively bounded system that presents unique opportunities and challenges for individuals with care needs at the intersection of other bounded systems, such as school education. This autoethnographic essay explores my lived experience of crossing these bounded systems for disability inclusion with care needs in China and beyond. Building upon Fisher & Tronto’s (1990) theory of care and Biesta’s (2021) vision for inclusive education, I examine "boundary-crossing inclusion" as a framework that moves beyond rights-based disability accommodation within a single bounded system toward building capacity for reciprocal connections across multiple bounded systems. I propose that the value of family boundedness lies in its secure, sustained, and personalized approach to care, which is essential for individuals with complex disabilities to pursue education goals. However, true inclusion occurs only when both care-giver and care recipient work to cross the boundaries of those systems otherwise closed off to each other for order and stability. Learning with disability can thus act as a catalyst of educational emancipation, rather than a sorrowful personal limitation. This suggests that inclusive education lies not in who is included in what, but in policies and practices aimed at enacting an interdependent relationship between students and broader society
Perspectives of Disability and Inclusion in Pre-Kindergarten Children
No full textExposure to disability and opportunities to learn about differences are critical aspects of inclusive education, especially for young children. The purpose of the current study was to learn more about the experiences and perceptions that preschool students have regarding disability, as well as to examine perspectives of parents and teachers of disabled and non-disabled preschoolers. Using task-based qualitative interviews with preschool students (n = 35), along with a quantitative survey of teachers (n = 12) and parents (n = 35) representing 4 elementary school classrooms, key themes were identified. Important differences emerged between students with prior exposure to disability and those without, including more positive attitudes of inclusion, language about disability, and understanding of disability. Implications for exposure to disability as a lens for evaluating inclusive education classroom settings, as well as recommendations for families and practitioners are discussed
Three Blind Cats and One Visually Impaired Human in the Family: Compassion, Communication, Caregiving, and Culture in a Household with Multiple Species Sharing the Same Disability
No full textBased on the firsthand experiences of a visually impaired human sharing a home with three blind cats, this paper explores the parallels between different species experiencing a similar disability. Along with comparisons of practical adaptations to daily life – including pictures of blind cats going about their day – the paper examines the creation of a household culture and communication style reflecting these sensory limitations, both human and feline, that are then passed along to new members of the family. The paper considers broader issues of historical and social treatment of disability across species, as well as the ways disability can inform care and compassion for others, regardless of ability or species
The Act of Noticing: Disabled Students’ Insights into Access and Accommodations in Post-Secondary Education
No full textThis paper is based on a panel discussion that took place at the 2025 Including Disability Global Summit (IDGS) in which co-authors had a structured conversation about their experiences with academic advising and accommodations at both Canadian and American universities. Testimonies of the co-authors were then analyzed and translated into 32 theoretical codes across 4 categories: Barriers, Support, In the Future, and Message. The co-authors span multiple academic programs, including: Forensic Psychology, Political Science, Sociology, Education, Musicology, Social Work, Kinesiology, Communications & Digital Studies, Library & Information Studies, and Archival Studies. By sharing their experiences both inside and outside of the classroom, it becomes clear that in-community mentorship and support from academic staff—especially academic advisors—can help students find their places in universities. There is no reason for disabled students to be counted out or left behind, and sometimes all it takes to begin supporting them is an act of noticing. 
Ensuring Compulsory Education Rights for Children with Disabilities in China
No full textThis study aims to explore the issue of ensuring educational rights for children with disabilities in China. First, it provides a brief overview of the development of legislation and policies aimed at ensuring educational rights for children with disabilities in China. Then, it explores the realization of educational rights for children with disabilities in China by evaluating educational opportunities and conditions using statistical data from the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Chinese Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF), and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. It has been found that the realization of education rights for children with disabilities in China has significantly improved over the past two decades, as reflected in increasing enrollment rates and improved educational conditions. However, the uneven educational development and quality issues remain a big challenge for the Chinese government to further secure educational rights for them. The Chinese government should further take action to balance educational development
Scrutinizing Seclusion: Recommendations for How to Protect Patients from Unwarranted Isolation
No full textSeclusion consists of isolating a patient within a particular space and preventing them from leaving. While framed as a short-term strategy for preventing a patient from harming themselves or others, seclusion is used in ways that are ultimately harmful. The authors argue that administrative law should more strictly limit the use of seclusion techniques in hospital settings. They first outline the harmful impacts of seclusion on those who experience it. Next, they provide an overview of the current statutory framework; and they show that there is no regulatory body to ensure that the few existing guidelines are followed in practice. Finally, the authors make two key recommendations: 1) to establish a consistent definition of seclusion, guidelines for how and when to use it, and an oversight mechanism that ensures compliance; and 2) to promote changes within the medical profession, ensuring that patients and practitioners are well-informed about their respective rights and obligations
Left Behind : Disability, Trauma, and Social Isolation in the COVID-19 Era
No full textIn this scholarship-informed personal essay, I examine the profound personal and social transformations that follow adult-onset disability. Drawing on both academic research and lived experience, I reflect on the fracturing of long-standing friendships after developing multiple chronic illnesses, including long COVID. I explore how public health crises can magnify social exclusion for immunocompromised and disabled individuals, and I critique ableist assumptions embedded in social norms to attempt to offer a meditation on grief, isolation, and the search for meaning amidst unresolved loss. The piece contributes to disability studies by illuminating the emotional toll of exclusion and the invisible labor of disabled self-advocacy during a prolonged public health emergency
The Use of META in Junior Military Leadership Development: An Integrative Literature Review
No full textThis integrative literature review, set within the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) context, examines the use of serious gaming simulations in military leadership development. This review addresses a leadership development gap in the military and assesses where serious gaming simulations (SGS) were deemed helpful in the armed forces’ human skills training. These human skills are particularly relevant in military contexts described as “operations other than war” (OOTW). An example of OOTW would be the Canadian Armed Forces’ support for long-term homes during the 2021-2022 COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to evaluate the efficacy of SGS in developing soldiers’ mindsets and capacity for skills development with a focus on human skills. Human skills refer to interpersonal and cognitive competencies, such as communication, decision-making under pressure, and collaboration (Touloumakos, 2020). The literature review focuses on identifying key themes related to the role of SGS in developing or enhancing leadership competencies relevant to the military. Specifically, it evaluates the impact of these SGS on collaboration, decision-making under time pressure, culture change, and communication skills within military teams
Altered Voice, Altered Humanness
No full textVoice activated devices reinforce the philosophical concept of the animating power of speech that delineates human from animal, yet these devices are interpreted by machines. Our contemporary moment has reified voice in privileging the perfect, the mechanical over the varied, accented, messy, human produced speech. Therefore these devices render a disabled, an accented, or a varied voice is rendered as less authentic, less human, than what can be produced algorithmically. The technological has philosophically replaced the divine. Recentering the human in all of its forms in the face of artificial verisimilitude requires a more inclusive mode of thinking about language
What is the Middle Ground Between a Curb Cut and Eugenics?
No full textContemporary political systems are built around the “fallacy of the middle ground” which posits that the best outcome inherently rests at the middle of two opposites. But when the opposites are having the resources you need to thrive and being erased from public life entirely, what is the compromise? This is the reality that disabled and chronically ill communities have navigated within neo-liberal politics since at least the mid-20th century, very often for much longer. In response to the increasing threats to our communities and reliance on “the middle” by our leaders, we must return to the same response that our forebears relied on to navigate their own unprecedented times: community building.
This is an edited version of the Closing Keynote of the 2025 Including Disability Global Summit.