About Disability Studies

Disability studies is a diverse interdisciplinary field that investigates broad questions about the nature, meanings, and consequences of disability from interrelated social, historical, cultural, political, and interpersonal perspectives. The undergraduate Minor in Disability Studies examines disability issues from multiple lenses, balancing theoretical exploration with practical application, and providing students with a broad understanding of the lived experiences of disability—including ableism, discrimination, and social movements for disability rights, access, and justice. As a culmination of the program, students are placed in practicum settings where they gain unique skills and perspectives, apply theory to real-world situations, and participate in community-based disability research and advocacy.

Prospective Students

Let us know a few things about you and your interest in the field of disability studies.

Prospective Student Information

Disability Studies Minor Planning Form

This form is used to help students plan and track their coursework for completing the Disability Studies Minor.

Disabilities Studies Program Plan

Add the Minor

 Use this form to request changes to your academic program, including majors, minors, and concentrations.

Change of Major, Minor Concentration, or Campus

Goals and Learning Outcomes

Program Goals

These goals are conceptualized as the ultimate "ends" we hope to achieve in educating students and trainees in disability studies.

  1. Promote full social integration by providing knowledge, awareness, and experience of inclusion and integration of people with disabilities as a foundational ethical principle of disability studies.

  2. Position disability as a social justice issue by exposing students to historical and contemporary disability issues and providing learning opportunities to identify, articulate, and address inequities and injustices affecting the lives of disabled people.

  3. Position disability as diversity by providing theoretical and practical contexts for thinking about disability as a component of human diversity, and providing students with tools to critically examine social and cultural constructions of disability.

Learning Outcomes

In order to assess the program and student learning, we have developed the following list of learning outcomes, which represent key areas of expertise for all students graduating with a minor in disability studies.

  1. Students will demonstrate competency in understanding the biopsychosocial implications of disability and in producing interdisciplinary disability studies research questions and analyses.

  2. Students will learn to examine and critique enabling and disabling ideological assumptions that shape social institutions, professions, policies, and systems of representation. Students will also demonstrate the ability to theoretically connect ideological assumptions about disability to those regarding gender, race, age, class, nationality, and sexual orientation.

  3. Students will gain knowledge and understanding about disability history, rights, policies, and contemporary issues, especially in terms of the way people with disabilities, through their own agency, advocacy, and voices, have shaped conceptions of disability in specific historical and contemporary contexts.

  4. Students will demonstrate improved skills in working with disabled people and increased ability to understand individual and family concerns.

  5. Students will have a broader awareness of the applicability of disability studies knowledge to a wide range of professions, and increased understanding of specific careers related to disability equity and inclusion.

 

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Who Should Earn a Disability Studies Minor?

Students across the university will benefit from completing the Minor in Disability Studies. The overarching goal of the minor is to examine disability as an essential element of human diversity, and to provide theoretical and practical knowledge to promote the full social inclusion of people with disabilities in local, national and global communities.