Project Description:
The aim of the Disability Studies Program (DSP) is to develop and integrate disability studies curricula across disciplines and departments university wide. The CDPI Director served a six year appointment as the Director of the Disability Studies Program and continues to teach in the program and participate in the university wide Disability Studies faculty meetings. Faculty members work collaboratively to increase the awareness of students and faculty about disability related issues through expanding disability studies course offerings and offering additional educational opportunities for the campus community and the public. The Disability Studies Program is a permanent program in the Undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington offering an undergraduate Disability Studies minor and Disability Studies major through Individualized Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. The program includes three core courses: Disability & Society: An Introduction to Disabilities Studies; Disability Law, Policy, & the Community; Civil & Human Rights Law for People with Disabilities: National and International Perspectives. In addition, the program has been successful in offering additional courses sponsored by existing academic departments and schools e.g., bioethics, rehabilitation medicine, sociology, psychology, and law. Three courses have also been developed and offered through the Study Abroad program; one undergraduate course on assistive technology in Brazil, a graduate course in the rights of the children with disabilities to health in Cambodia, and a third course on assistive technology in South Africa.The DSP was awarded a President s Diversity Appraisal Implementation Fund to develop and provide the Disability Studies Curriculum Transformation Seminar to UW faculty. More recently, the program has received a Simpson Center grant to develop a graduate certificate in Disability Studies and to build community among graduate students interested in disability studies from departments across campus. The DSP has offered numerous conferences on topics of importance to advancing disability rights, addressing such issues as eugenics and disability, disability rights in Asia, human and disability rights internationally, and the ethics of medical treatments on individuals with IDD.
