Reclaiming disabled creativity: How cultural models make legible the creativity of people with disabilities

The field of creativity studies underrepresents—even excludes—creators who have disabilities. The underrepresentation partly reflects an approach that pathologizes disability. Disability as a pathology or marker of ineligibility makes the contributions of people with disabilities invisible or illegible to creativity research. However, disability operates as a marker of membership in a larger disability culture. Considering disability and creativity as cultural phenomena locates a means for including disabled creators in creativity studies. Cultural models describe creativity in terms of groups sharing values, experiences, and resources. People with disabilities participate in subcultures (e.g., deaf communities) and/or larger cultures (i.e., disability culture). Disability cultures encapsulate shared experiences and values as well as resources. In the following article, I pair three propositions from cultural creativity models with evidence from creators with disabilities to demonstrate that (a) members of disability culture experience the world in ways that generate creative expression, (b) encountering a world designed for abled bodies incites the creativity of disabled people, and (c) disabled and abled people collaboratively create. However, not all methodological approaches effectively include creators with disabilities. Qualitative approaches suit best when the researcher practices reflexivity and allows creators with disabilities the right to manage their own representation within the project.

Ability within disability: Reflective memories shared with Dr Kasturi Varley

In a post-apartheid South Africa, the value of reflective memories and their impact on community history gives credibility to their relationship with personal struggles such as disability, be it physical or political. Shaped by South African Indian heritage, an isolated individualised case of a second-generation descendant’s ability–disability experience is researched and narrated in this article. The respondent, Dr Kasturi Varley is a woman of the South African Indian community, who was born almost 101 years after the first shipload of Indian indentured labourers arrived in the then Colony of Natal. Her memories shed light on a unique Indo-African-European experience. Her indentured paternal grandfather arrived in the African continent in August 1900. Her reflective memories and shared experiences of various episodes of the ability–disability paradigm add to the body of knowledge of the Indian indentured labour system that already exists and partially fills up the prevalent gaps in the research on this topic. Her story is unique in that she worked wheelchair-bound at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria and subsequently settled in the United Kingdom. This study applied a qualitative research methodology.Contribution: This article provides insight on reflective memories within the domain of social memory and contributes to an understanding of the historiography of the descendants of Indian indentured labourers in South Africa. In 2020, this community commemorated the 160th anniversary of the arrival of the labourers to the Colony of Natal.

Key Challenges and Opportunities for Implementing School Located Vaccination Clinics for COVID-19 and Influenza: Roundtables With School Nurses and Immunization Programs

School-located vaccination clinics (SLVs) are an established strategy to offer influenza and routine vaccinations and improve student and community health. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many communities to expand SLVs to include COVID-19 vaccines. However, these SLVs are less documented than in the past due to the fast-paced nature of the pandemic and the additional pressures put on schools and public health organizations. We conducted five virtual roundtables with 30 school nurses and state immunization program managers from across the United States to gain insight into SLVs occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Roundtables explored participants’ experiences planning and implementing SLVs, including factors influencing success and available resources. Findings highlighted SLVs as an opportunity to increase access and equity for vaccines. Participants shared strategies for School-located vaccination (SLV) funding, partnership building, vaccine storage and management, consent, data sharing, messaging, and promotion. These shared experiences offer useful insights for those interested in future and sustained SLV implementation.

Children of Same-Sex Couples

As the United States becomes more accepting of sexual minority people, more opportunities have become available for same-sex couples to become parents. Blended families with a new stepparent, planned families via insemination, as well as adoption and fostering are changing what defines a family. As the definition of a family changes, so must the ways in which schools interact with each family type. The shared experiences of sexual minority parents and their children are explored, and recommendations for schools are made.

On a Country in Captive: A Review on Aruni Kashyap’s There Is No Good Time for Bad News

Aruni Kashyap’s poetry is an organic blend of powerful realities and raw emotions. While many of his contemporary poets devote their attention towards the technical nuances of poetry, Kashyap’s focus beams on what he wants to say rather than the how behind it. The form never overpowers the ideas that he ardently tries to convey through the perfectly cut lines of his debut poetry collection, There Is No Good Time for Bad News, which depicts the plight of a state that was brought to nemesis by the insurgency. His poems offer a spatial tour through the unexplored regions of the Northeast to the streets of Manhattan, where numerous lives are entwined into a single destiny. It resonates with the traumatic experiences and suppressed voices of the survivors of the Assam insurgency alerting the world to the brutality inflicted by the authoritarian state which deprives the people of a happy and peaceful life. The poet draws deep from the turbulent personal experiences of the people around him which he then fine-tunes into the shared experiences of the narrator, narrated and the reader. These verses are stained with the everyday violence encountered by the people of his homeland and unquestionably create a lasting impact, with the conversational style of language that is astutely employed by the poet.

Cybercrime Threat Landscape amid the Movement Control Order in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved rapidly and affected almost all the world's countries, creating unprecedented chaos on human lives, physical health, mental wellbeing, and the world economy. During this time, digital space has become an indispensable global means of communication, entertainment, and social interaction. However, high reliance on digital tools increases the risk of being prey to cyberattacks. In order to explore the cybercrime threat landscape, empirical research was conducted to examine the shared experiences related to cybercrime threats during the enforcement of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia. Data was collected using an online survey among 332 respondents across Malaysia. The finding stipulated that most of the respondents comprised females aged between 18 and 28 years old. The result also indicated that majority of female became victims of online phishing/malware distribution [(M = 0.58, SD = 0.13); t (113) = 2.24, p = 0.02] and online sexual harassment [(M = 0.56, SD = 0.11); t (107) = 2.38, p = 0.01]. The understanding of cybercrime experiences faced by the public during MCO is essential to help law enforcement agencies to stay vigilant on issues related to public safety and security during unprecedented conditions.

Experiences of Participants Who Then Become Coaches in a Peer Coach Diabetes Self-Management Program: Lessons for Future Programs

Objectives Peer support programs are effective in improving outcomes among low-resource populations. Prior studies suggest that shared experiences improve peer partnerships. We hypothesized that participants in a peer coaching program who then became coaches might bring insight into their coaching role. We explored the motivations of coaches in a diabetes self-management coaching program who became coaches after completing the program as participants. Methods Between June 2016 and April 2017 we conducted semi-structured interviews with eight participants-turned-coaches and four of their peer partners in a six-month peer coaching program for patients with poor glycemic control at the Detroit VA. The interviews were transcribed, reviewed and coded by two researchers in an iterative process until consensus was reached. Key themes were identified and analyzed. Results Participants-turned-coaches reported the importance of their own peer coach in their decision to become a coach. Participants-turned-coaches described commitment to their partners, providing realistic encouragement, and fostering a reciprocal partnership. Participants-turned-coaches shared their own difficulties to motivate their partners and create a sense of commonality. Discussion Encouraging participants who complete diabetes peer coach interventions to become coaches appears to be a useful strategy for developing peer coaches who bring sensitivity, commitment, and reciprocity to their role.

Mutual Recognition: Empathy as the Foundation of Community in Dementia

This paper explores the challenges of developing a healthy, genuine community as some of its members experience cognitive decline or dementia. I draw upon philosophical discussions on community (Stein, 2000) and Husserlian empathy (1931;1939) to identify these challenges. First, community is organic; it relies on the differentiated roles of individual members to remain healthy. The ability to recognize the contribution of each member is essential for its health. Second, dyadic relationships may similarly be healthy or waning depending on the presence or absence of mutual empathy. Empathy is embodied. Persons living with dementia (PLWD) need to experience being recognized as persons, in person, in order for dyadic relationships and communities to thrive. As such, some communities may become unhealthy in the absence of mutual recognition. In these instances, careful interventions, e.g., through shared experiences and embedded memories, may be required to promote the well-being of the community and its members.

Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life: National Country Context: UK

Extending Working Lives (EWLs hereafter) is an important policy goal across many Western countries. This document traces how policy developments have formed the existing EWLs agenda in the UK context. It explores the interrelationship between demographic shifts, policy reform, changing organisational and cultural practices, and technological drivers across groups with diverse life course trajectories. It needs to be borne in mind that UK development is influenced by wider, global influences and shared experiences, such as the OECD level shift toward later retirement pathways. There are also imminent political and cultural changes taking place in the UK which will have an ongoing influence on EWLs, such as the European Union exit. Section 7 provides an overview of the development and framing of policies relevant to EWL, as well as levels of participation. Section 8 focuses on macro national regime characteristics and socio-demographic characteristics across subgroups of older people. Section 9 goes into greater detail on the main inequalities which have a negative impact on EWLs and Section 12 draws on the key policies that impact on EWLs, with consideration of the main inequalities within this.