<p><span>Within each socio-economic class there exist able classes, characterized by the ability to successfully access and enact their preferred capital. There also exist disabled classes of individuals who possess preferred capital, but remain unable to perform in the same manner as able bodies. In the attempt to perform accumulated knowledge and normality, the disabled individual confronts the relationship between his capital and body, his intention and ability. By examining my own classroom experience as a student with attention deficit disorder, together with research from the fields of education and disability studies, this research-based narrative reveals that preferred capital does not merely comprise cultural knowledge and social relationships, but also the ability to perform one's knowledge and desires through behavior that is valued in the classroom. In a field dominated by able-bodied individuals, the disabled body possesses "disabled capital", as preferred capital becomes compromised when housed within a disabled body.</span></p>

Communication is critical to effective collaboration and decision making in both student and professional engineering teams. While teamwork is often assigned at the undergraduate level, the increasing emphasis on preparing students for the workplace has spawned interest in selfdirected student teams that possess a higher degree of autonomy over decision making. This naturalistic study analyzed communication within two self-directed design teams in an undergraduate mechanical engineering capstone course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in which 8 student-led teams initiated and developed new product prototypes over the semester. Insights presented here, from the first part of the full study, focused on a pivotal, relatively high-stress meeting, in which all 24 members of each team collectively discussed four product options and decided on one product to prototype. The audio recording and transcript of the meetings was used to compare the duration of time devoted to the students' presentations of the four different product ideas, as well as the free-form question-and-answer sessions that followed each presentation. The quantity and distribution of verbal participation from individuals during each Q&A discussion was also calculated. Although limited in scope, results of this first study suggest a correlation between the duration of Q&A sessions, distribution of communication responsibility among individual team members, and final product selection. Furthermore, a total of 23 out of 24 students (96%) on Team A and 20 out of 24 students (83%) on Team B asked and/or answered questions during the discussions throughout the meeting, suggesting that the stress and emotion of the high-stakes meeting may have reduced social loafing and contributed overall to students' verbal participation.

is a Lecturer in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication (WRAP) program within the Comparative Media Studies/Writing Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Jared teaches in a range of communication-intensive courses at MIT, including Communicating Science to the Public, Product Design, Flight Vehicle Design, Environmental Engineering, and Nuclear Science. He has also been a technology and science writer for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Jared earned a BA in English and creative writing from Colby College, and an MA in literature from Boston College.