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Examining how readers of popular fiction respond to characters with disabilities and characters immersed in the lives of characters with disabilities, this paper serves to contribute to understandings of the meanings that readers ascribe to disability in popular culture using the public sphere of online discussion. Specifically, I study online reader discussion of three characters, namely: Trudi in Ursula Hegi's (1996) Stones from the River, Icy in Gwyn Hyman Rubio's (1998) Icy Sparks and Jewel in Brett Lott's (1991) Jewel. I present findings from my analysis of reader discussion using readers' descriptions of their identified connections with characters with disabilities. While these connections challenge the othering frequently cited in presentations of disability through readers' recognition and appreciation of the well-rounded characters beyond traditional disability tropes, the unmet potential of reader discussion to challenge the status quo is also demonstrated through readers' failure to expand these connections beyond the pages of the novels.

In Reading Victorian Deafness: Signs and Sounds in Victorian Literature and Culture, Jennifer Esmail explores the cultural role of deafness in Victorian England and North America. Looking to cultural products as a reflection of wider societal beliefs, Esmail provides an in-depth history of the contrasting proponents of signed languages and oralism during this historical period.

This practice-based article presents strategies employed in the shifting of the Community Engaged Learning (CEL) components of an undergraduate program in community rehabilitation and disability studies (CRDS) to an online modality during the 2020-2021 Covid-19 restrictions. The CRDS program, based in Calgary, Canada places high importance on CEL with a focus on critical engagement, mentorship, and community action for social justice. The Inciting Change Makers (ICM) framework, which we present here, is foundational to our teaching and learning in this field. During the pandemic restrictions, we found the framework not only supported us to engage learners in our focus areas for inciting change, but also provided the opportunity to consider ways that the online learning environment enhanced the CEL practica experience.
Using vignettes, we demonstrate the successful use of the ICM framework in an online CEL context to develop a more authentic, engaged and inclusive community of learners. Three vignettes illustrate specific approaches used to carry out meaningful, impactful CEL opportunities in a mandated online environment. Lessons from these strategies may assist similar programs in adapting their own Community Engaged Learning programs in an increasingly online world.

Background: The impetus behind the deinstitutionalization movement that began in the 1950s was to improve the wellbeing of institutionalized people as well as improve choice and access to inclusive community-based care. However, as large-scale institutions were closed, community- based alternatives were not added to meet the demand. This research looks at the experience of chronic emergency shelter users as an example of the ongoing systemic spatial segregation of people which was previously experienced in asylums. Drawing from some of the key features of Mad Studies, we utilize the experiences of chronic shelter users to posit enhanced approaches and supports to community-based interventions beyond the model of spatial segregation, which we argue is currently employed through direct and indirect measures. Approach: We conducted a cross-sectional study utilizing 300 survey interviews with chronically homeless people in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Data was primarily quantitative but space for some qualitative answers were included. Analysis includes descriptive statistics, correlations, and regressions. Results: Participants reported high rates of trauma and system cycling, which were often inter- generational and starting in childhood. Troubling rates of self-identified "mental illness," and mental health crises including suicide attempts and self-harm, and very limited success in accessing supports emerged. Results show that shelters and current housing models frequently replicate the segregation, confinements, control and surveillance of the asylums of the past which fail to meet individual needs and desires. Conclusion: Chronic homelessness and subsequent shelter use is the present reality of deinstitutionalization for many. Current attempts to fill gaps in the system of care replicate institutional care in various formats, and have halted progress towards the actualization of deinstitutionalization. Alternative responses require us to challenge the medicalization of homelessness as "mental illness." Interventions including housing programs must be focused on healing from trauma and include the voices and experiences of lived experts.