Kristine S. Neuber Portfolio

Dissertation Planning

My Motivation for the Topic

As a person with a disability and a special education teacher, I believe that people with disabilities, through their experiences, have a unique set of skills and perspectives that they can bring to the workplace. Their experiences have the potential to develop into leadership abilities that are sometimes overlooked by others distracted by preconceived notions of a disability. My conceptual framework in regard to leadership for people with disabilities has not changed since my second portfolio. I now hope to look more closely at it in relation to my proposed dissertation topic. It has been my goal professionally to help people with disabilities to overcome the obstacles caused by their disability and work to reach their full potential.  This research project is focused directly on that goal.         

In addition it will allow me to connect my interest in disability policy with my knowledge of the education of students with visual impairments and blindness. I began my career 15 years ago as a vision teacher and now will be working as instructional faculty in a teacher preparation program in the area of Vision Impairment and Blindness. This project will allow me to address the practical realities of my life while continuing to feed my passion.

Introduction

Conceptual Framework for the Project

Statement of the problem

Despite the implementation of many laws to ensure equal access to programs and services and protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination solely based on their disability, the unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities are still high. Among individuals with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64 only 38.0 percent are employed as apposed to 76 percent of those without disabilities. (Disability Status Report, 2005).  The employment rates are even more appalling for those who are visually impaired and blind. Research shows that 70 percent of people who are blind who are searching for jobs cannot find them. Thirty percent of those lucky enough to find jobs are considered underemployed in relation to their qualifications (Dobbs, 1999). Given this situation, it is difficult to point to leaders in the blind community that can act as mentors for others who are blind and more importantly as leaders who can demonstrate to employers the skills and assets that people who are blind can bring to their business.

The media’s portrayal of individuals with disabilities provides another road block to gainful employment, portraying people with disabilities as either innocent victims of the disability or as “super-crips” describing those few who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds (Riley, 2005). Neither of these views is particularly helpful when trying to convince employers that a person who is blind could be an asset to their company.

Having a visual impairment or blindness can have obvious disadvantages in the workplace, inability to interpret visual signals, and materials, transportation and mobility issues and difficulty accessing specific computer applications. Advancements in the area of assistive technology and accessible media have come a long way in leveling the playing field. In addition, the experience of living with a disability, and overcoming obstacles caused by the disability likely creates an individual with a unique set of leadership skills that could prove to be valuable to many employers. Identifying these skills and marketing this largely untapped group of qualified professionals is the key to changing the abysmal employment situation for individuals with visual impairments.

Purpose of the Research

The purpose of this study is three-fold, (1) to develop a model of leadership specific to individuals with visual impairment and blindness through exploration of the life experiences of leaders who are blind, and a 360 evaluation to explore how others view them as leaders, (2) to make recommendations to educators of the visually impaired and blind on how to help develop future leaders in their students, and (3) to identify policy changes to better enable people with visual impairments to reach their potential professionally.

Research Questions

1. What unique leadership qualities are attributed to leaders who are visually impaired and blind?
1. What qualities of leadership are directly affected negatively and positively by the condition of visual impairment and blindness?
2. How do leaders who are visually impaired overcome the obstacles caused by their disability?

2. How have family and other social supports aided in the development of leadership qualities in people who are visually impaired?

3. How has the academic and professional preparation aided in the success of leaders who are visually impaired?

4. In what ways have federal, state and local policies aided in the success of leaders who are visually impaired?

Literature Review

Listed below are the areas of research I believe would be useful to the reader to provide background for the study. 

Leadership Theory

This section will explore existing theories of leadership.

360 Evaluation

Since I will be using the 360 Degree evaluation as part of my data, it will need to be described in detail in the literature review

Employment Barriers

This section will focus on existing research regarding what is known about both barriers to employment for people with visual impairment and blindness. Some examples are:

• Lack of mentors
• Lack of work experience
• Lack of Career planning /exploration in high school
• Lack of social support
• Employer ignorance of appropriate accommodations including assistive technology
• Lack of funding for assistive technology

Characteristics of Visual Impairment & Blindness

This section will discuss developmental issues related to visual impairment and blindness for example, the inability to make eye contact, read facial expressions and other relevant areas that may effect leadership.

Preparation – Public school versus School for the blind

This area will explore the differences in the educational experiences between students who attend public schools and those who attend a specialized schools for thre blind. This is in anticipation that my participants will vary in regard to their schooling.

Assistive technology

This section will explore the advancement of assistive technology in the area of visual impairment and blindness. It will focus on tools that help people complete tasks in the workplace.

Public Policy/Legislation

This area will provide a background to the reader on existing laws in place to assist people with visual impairment and blindness find and maintain employment and or independent living. Participants will be asked to discuss how or if specific laws and policies have helped them to succeed.

Methodology

I believe that using qualitative research methodology is best suited to answer the questions I pose for a possible dissertation project.  I am proposing to construct a theory of leadership traits among people with disabilities, specifically people with visual impairments.  Over the past 20 years people have begun to view disability as more than a condition characterizing an individual with a set of functional limitations.  Disability has also been recognized as a culture that is created out of personal experiences, interactions with others and the environment (O’Day & Killeen, 2002). Using this complex model of disability, qualitative research (grounded theory) is the most valid and appropriate method of inquiry.

Participants

    The participants will meet the following criteria

• Will meet or exceed the definition of legal blindness: 20/200 vision or worse in the better eye after correction and /or a field of vision less than 20 degrees
• Will be employed in a supervisory position over at least one fully sighted person. -- I believe this is an important distinction. If I hope to highlight leadership with this group of people, I believe it is important that I focus on people who are working primarily with the sighted population and not for an organization that has a mission to serve people with visual impairments (American Foundation for the blind, lighthouse for the blind etc.)
• Will reside in the United States. -- Although I may have access to potential participants outside the United States, I believe it is important that the participants live within one social system that is working from the same set of laws and educational opportunities.

Selection

The Careers and Technology Information Bank (CTIB) database managed by the American Foundation for the Blind will be used to identify potential participants for the study. This is a database of employed adults who are visually impaired in both the United States and Canada.  From this database a preliminary group of participants will be selected. The final group of people to interview will be based on criterion-based sampling (Patton, 1990) in order to achieve a diverse sample of information rich cases that highlight individual uniqueness while also capturing shared experiences of the participants. The most important consideration when selecting the final sample will be diversity in occupation, size of the participant’s staff, and severity of the participants visual impairment. If needed, additional participants will be identified through personal contacts and snowball sampling.

Data Collection

Interviews.  Interviews will be completed by the researcher at the site of the participant’s choice. In order to get the most diverse pool of participants the geographic area will include all states and territories within the United States.  This fact increases the probability that some participants will be interviewed via videoconferencing or phone. All efforts will be made to interview in person or via video conference in order to allow the researcher to observe the behavior of the participant.

Each participant will be interviewed on two separate occasions.  The initial interview will last 1.5 – 2 hours.  A second follow up interview will be conducted to share initial impressions from the available data as a form of member checking. Field notes will also be completed by the researcher noting the location, length of the interviews and personal observations.

360 Evaluations. 360 degree evaluations will be completed by each participant, their supervisor, peers and subordinates.  The 360 degree evaluations will serve four purposes: (1) provide a framework of leadership skills to explore, (2) to provide input and insight regarding the leadership abilities of the participants from the people they interact with on a daily basis, (3) to provide data to help triangulate findings from the semi-structured interviews and (4) to provide a possible incentive to encourage participation. (A free 360 evaluation)          

Participants will complete the 360 evaluation through an accessible online survey program. It will be evaluated by an independent contractor paid for by a grant secured by the researcher. (This is in a perfect world)

Data Analysis

This study will use grounded theory design. The first phase of data analysis will involve open coding.  Interviews will be transcribed and entered into the NVivo software program. In the first stage of analysis, transcripts will be broken down into small pieces consisting of a word, phrase or group of sentences.  The second phase, axial coding will involve developing categories from the initial concepts demonstrated during the open-coding stage. Axial coding will ultimately lead to grouping similar categories together to form “key categories”.  The Emergent theory will develop using the selective coding technique, along with the feedback from the 360 evaluation to triangulate the findings from the interviews and observations.