The purpose of this assignment is to help you gain information from a different perspective about disability. In order to do this, you will conduct an interview and analyze the results of your interview from an educated and professional perspective. The following is a task analysis for completing this assignment:
Step 1: Identify either an individual with a disability (can be from any of the categories), or an adult who works with an individual(s) with a disability (e.g. a teacher, supervisor, camp counselor, coach).
Step 2: Select an interview topic (what do you want more information on from this person— Inclusion? Public Schools? Civil rights? A political topic? You can select anything, but try make it relevant to the individual you will be interviewing and class topics). Develop anywhere from 10-15 “deep thinking” questions to ask this individual (including potential brief follow up questions based on responses given), with the understanding that questions may be added, deleted, or modified during the actual interview itself. Record the interview with your cell phone or laptop.
Step 3: Transcribe the entire interview, word for word from the recording. Include this transcript with your analysis. Warning! This is a time consuming, laborious process. Recruit the help of family, friends, or computer technology if possible. This typed complete transcript should be included as an appendix of your paper. All names can be changed to pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of your interviewee.
Step 4: Analyze the results of your interview. When formulating your written analysis, think about the topic of your interview, and how the results contrast to class discussion and personal experiences. What kind of insight did this person’s responses provide you with into both the topic and themselves? As part of your analysis include a minimum of 5-6 reference sources. Half of these sources must be from refereed journal articles or scholarly essays. The remaining references may come from trade sources such as Time Magazine, The Buffalo News, internet sites or blogs, shows like Dateline NBC, or PBS. In summary consider the following: As a result of this interview, have you learned anything about having a disability and how it perhaps affected the person’s responses to your question—how, what? Your analysis should be about 5-6 pages of typed double spaced text (this does not include your transcription) using standard 12 point font and margins.
