DYNAMICS OF DISABILITY IDENTITY
WITHIN THE
STUDENT VETERAN COMMUNITY
Amanda Kraus, Ph. D.
AHEAD 2011
DISABLED VETERANS REINTEGRATION AND
EDUCATION PROJECT

Goal to more authentically understand how
disabled veterans experience higher
education

Produce a model with recommendations on
strategies that contribute to the success of
veterans on campus
DISABLED VETERANS REINTEGRATION AND
EDUCATION PROJECT




Research
 Participatory-action research and mixed qualitative methodology
 35 individual, semi-structured interviews
Outreach
 Professionals’ Roundtable
 Sports and Wellness Camp
 Liaise with Student Vets Center
and campus and community
Academic initiatives
 SERV
 Online faculty resources
Direct Services
 DRC accommodations
 Healing Touch
IMPACT OF DVRE
Initiative
2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Initiative Total
Sports and Wellness 20
Camp
Individual interviews n/a
22
20
62
23
12
35
Healing Touch
n/a
47
51
98
DRC
Accommodations
SERV classes
6
15
26
47
8
24
27
59
Student Veterans
Center
Student Veterans of
America club
Annual Total
125
225
250
600
100
200
200
500
259
553
586
1401
UNIVERSIT Y OF ARIZONA TRENDS
Conceptualizing disability identity
Military
Media
Disability
Studies
MILITARY CONCEPTS
• DOD casualty statistics
• VA disability rating system
• A disability (“disease or injury determined to have
occurred in or to have been aggravated by military
service”) is evaluated according to the VA Schedule
for Rating Disabilities in Title 38, CFR, and Part 4.
Extent of disability is expressed as a percentage
from 0% (for conditions that exist but are not
disabling to a compensable degree) to 100%, in
increments of 10%.
• Language
• Catastrophically Ill and Injured, or “CII”
• Caregiver model of rehabilitation
“Congratulations! You have
completed your Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment
program. Therefore, I am declaring
that you are rehabilitated.”
MEDIA CONCEPTS
• Medical
• Palatable
• Inspirational
• “Super-crip”
• Tragic
• Villain
• Pitiful
• Charity and Telethons
DISABILIT Y STUDIES CONCEPTS
• Disability:
is a sociopolitical construct
is a key aspect of the human experience,
with social, political and economic
implications for society as a whole
is perpetuated by exclusive design, and
environmental, attitudinal, and economic
barriers, whether intentional or inadvertent
DISCUSS
• How are disabled veterans framed in the media?
• What are the messages veterans receive about
disability in the military and through the VA?
• How might this lens impact the identity of a disabled
veteran?
• Consider the process of service member to veteran
to disabled veteran to disabled student veteran
• What are the differences in how they see themselves
and how they are perceived on campus
DISABILIT Y TRENDS
 As of June 2012, the number of American troops who have
been injured in OIF, OEF, OND is 48,597
 Nearly 20 percent of the 1.6 million ser vice members
deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan repor t symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only
slightly more than half have sought treatment (RAND, 2008)
 Nineteen percent repor t a probable TBI, seven percent repor t
TBI, PTSD and depression
 Costs associated with mental health care for ser vice
members in the first two years af ter deployment is an
estimated $6.2 billion over two years (RAND, 2008)
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS –
CHARACTERISTICS
 Non-traditional
 Access issues
 Bias, climate, financial
 Some identify first as vets, some will not identify
 Reinscribe military values
 Language – vet-speak
 Cohort, team
 Friendlies
 Use dedicated space to
cultivate identity as
student veterans
 Disability
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS - DISABILIT Y
 Reluctant to identify personally, but acknowledge disability as
impor tant aspect of community
 DOD statistics, VA VR rating
 Language
 Wounded Warrior
 Injured
 Hierarchy
 Combat-related injury
 Service-related injury
 Non-service-related injury
 Service provision
 Cohort mentality
 Divide between invisible and visible
Deceased
Combat-related
Official recognition (i.e. Purple Heart)
Service-connected
Combat Theatre
Visible injuries or disabilities
Living
Non-combat-related
Unrecognized
Non-Service-related (e.g. skiing accident)
Stateside or other non-combat location
Invisible (including physical, learning
disabilities, psychological, TBIs )
“Well, I got PTSD. They gave me that last year
or so. Back and knees and just basic joint stuff.
Well, I got actually—not too long ago I got
diagnosed with a mild TBI just from getting
tossed around the back of a truck, hit with a
couple explosions, but that’s about it. No
puncture wounds or gun shots or anything like
that.”
Disability depends on context
The VA says that if it’s not documented, it never
really happened. Part of the problem with my job
field is that most of the corpsman never got
documented. The few things that I did have
problems with kind of got overlooked and it wasn’t
until the end that they wanted it. I went to physical
therapy for my elbow, which the VA has rated me at
zero percent for as well as my ankles. I’m rated at
zero percent. It can increase. I just have to find
more documentation to support it. I’m working on
that.
Fighting to get a VA Rating
It’s like, they were trying to keep me in the Service. as
long as possible... Because like when I was in, if you, if
you had any type of disability or any king of, anything
wrong with you like if you were missing your arm or
your hand or something like that, you were as good as
gone… disability did not equal the military. And now
it’s like they realize that having a disability doesn’t
prevent you from using your brain. You don’t
necessarily have to be doing pull-ups and pushups and
stuff to be worth something.
Military models of disability
Yeah it’s like a whole process. They look through your
medical records, and they evaluate how disabled you
are. And it sounds bizarre, but you are like hoping for
a good disability rating. But it’s, you know, I don’t feel
like 60 percent disabled.
Measuring self with VA ratings
"I guess in a way I don’t consider myself disabled. I don’t
know. Maybe that’s what they’re thinking. In another sense I
do consider myself disabled. I want to represent disabled
community and it’s not so general and not so broad. There are
hidden disabilities that you don’t see. I’m invested in that term
because I want to represent it positively and promote that
there is a way to do it with grace and values and just to kind of
build awareness. I imagine that there are some that are
fighting to kind of normalize themselves.”
Normalizing disability relevant to identity
DISCUSS

How do the DOD disability/casualty statistics and
the VA disability rating system frame disability?

What are the implications for developing disability
identity?

What are the implications
for service provision?
IMPLICATIONS
 Reframe disability
 “Universally” designed physical and curricular
environments – remove barriers
 Integrate disability into community
 Focus on access, justice
 Language in outreach
IMPLICATIONS
 Strong relationship with VA re: mental health and
benefits
 Adaptive/wheelchair athletics
 Open gym to vets
 P90X
 Private hours
 Healing Touch
IMPLICATIONS
 Incorporate student feedback
 Committee to discuss veterans on campus,
including students, administrators, staff
and faculty
 Check assumptions about student identity.
Do not assume most salient identity and do
not assume common
understanding/language
RESOURCES
 Disabled Veterans Reintegration and Education
Project
drc.arizona.edu/veterans/
 UA V.E.T.S.
vets.arizona.edu