Critical Disability and Rehabilitation Studies (CDARS)

Lead Researcher - Barbara Gibson

Illustration of kids playing together

Research Overview

Under the direction of Dr. Barbara Gibson, a multidisciplinary team conducts research that focuses on investigating and improving quality of life, community participation, and social inclusion of children, youth and young adults with disabilities through an examination of the health practices and policies that affect their daily lives.

Research Projects

Difference and Movement: The Youth Mobility Project

The Youth Mobility Project was a partnership between a diverse group of disabled youth, researchers, and artists in Ontario. Together we wanted to challenge how disability is seen as a deficit and explore the idea of disability as potential. Disability is a form of diversity and diversity is a strength. Utilizing creative participatory visual methodologies, the project aimed to investigate and re-theorize mobilities of youth labelled-as-disabled; and to use this knowledge to inform diverse areas of applied design, healthcare, education, and disability research. [Funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant]

People

Staff

  • Bhavnita Mistry is the research manager for the CDARS lab.

Trainees

  • Dr. Katie Mah is a Postdoctoral Associate, co-supervised by Dr. Gail Teachman at Western University. Employing critical qualitative and arts-based methodologies, Katie’s postdoctoral research explores how recovery following concussion is discursively understood by young people.
  • Donya Mosleh is a doctoral candidate in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. Donya’s transdisciplinary research program draws on posthumanist theory to explore how disability is understood and operationalized in the everyday clinical practices of a children’s outpatient rehabilitation clinic.

Join Us

No current positions. Not accepting new trainees.

Contact: For more information contact Barbara Gibson at barbara.gibson@utoronto.ca