The purpose of this dissertation was to examine students with disabilities self-perceptions of their academic and social supports in the general and special education classroom and the impact of the students' counterstories to inform the design of classroom supports. This study was anchored in organizational theory, critical race theory, and the special education inclusion literature that supports the positive achievement and positive social effects for students with disabilities in the general education program. I make a case for the use of Critical Race Theory as a means to address ableism and argue for the use of more qualitative and transformative research to address the research to practice gap in the special education literature. The dissertation was a case study of eight high school students and six of their teachers. The experimental design was an explanatory mixed methods approach collecting five cycles of quantitative and qualitative data. The cycles collected data related to the students' preferred classroom supports, their academic identity, teachers classroom supports, and the impact of the students counterstories on their teachers instructional design. Findings suggest students prefer individual supports, feel more successful in their general education classes that are challenging than in special education classes, and possess many of the positive non-cognitive factors associated with student success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]