Staying Grounded While Being Uprooted: A Visual and Poetic Representation of the Transition from University to Community for Graduates with Disabilities

Abstract

Visual and poetic representations are used to illustrate how recent university graduates with disabilities experienced the transition from university to the community. As part of a qualitative research project, I interviewed ten recent graduates, analyzed their stories and created a theoretical model/metaphor of a tree within an ecosystem as a form of creative analytic practice. Two poems were also created using transcripts of two graduates who had polarized transitional experiences. The visual and poetic representations work together to illustrate how imperative it is for university alumni with disabilities to be included in, and connected to, various communities upon graduation to facilitate a smooth transition.

Keywords:

• transition
• disability
• university students
• community