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Date Permissions Signed

11-9-2011

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Stevenson, Joan C.

Second Advisor

Boxberger, Daniel L., 1950-

Third Advisor

Boland, Elizabeth

Abstract

Since passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 the participation rate of students with physical impairments in higher education has remained static or declined. Though a number of potential issues have been identified most research tends to focus on classrooms, building interiors, and technology rather than exterior landscapes and fiscal policies that treat all students the same way. Most studies have also lacked theoretical rigor, relying instead on models of disability and statistics to explain their data, rather than on an extensive body of community based, multidisciplinary studies employing urban theories of space and place. Using space and place theory as a template and critical discourse analysis to examine data collected from two comparable mid-sized Washington State public universities the author has attempted to expose some of the underlying dominant and minority discourses concerning exterior barriers to inclusion for persons with physical impairments in higher education by placing these issues in historical context while fully encasing them within urban anthropology and contemporary urban studies of architecture, geography, sociology, and disability.

Type

Text

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25710/54n0-kk85

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

761396983

Subjects – Names (LCNAF)

Western Washington University--Buildings--Barrier-free design; Eastern Washington University--Buildings--Barrier-free design

Subject – LCSH

College students with disabilities--Washington (State); Barrier-free design--Washington (State)

Geographic Coverage

Washington (State)

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.

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