The temporarily
able-bodied, or TABs. That’s what disability activists call those who
are not physically or mentally impaired. And they like to remind them
that disability is a porous state; anyone can enter or leave at any
time. Live long enough and you will almost certainly enter it.
That
foreboding forecast is driving growth in disability studies, a field
that didn’t even exist 20 years ago. The reasons are mainly
demographic: as the population ages, the number of disabled will grow —
by 21 percent between 2007 and 2030, according to the Census Bureau.
At
the other end of the generational spectrum are those raised after the
passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990. They are now in
college or entering the work force. They are educated, perhaps without
even realizing it, in the politics and realities of disability, having
sat in the same classrooms in a more accessible society.
Universities
have long studied the disabled in medical and health care curriculums.
But when the first disability studies program emerged at Syracuse
University in 1994, it was a radical departure from the medical model
that had dominated offerings for decades and had approached disability
as a deficit that needed fixing.
Like
black studies, women’s studies and other liberation-movement
disciplines, disability studies teaches that it is an unaccepting
society that needs normalizing, not the minority group. “Disablement
comes from a confluence of social factors that shape one’s identity,”
says Tammy Berberi, president of the
Society for Disability Studies. “It is not a distinct physical condition or a private struggle.”
WHAT YOU’LL STUDY
The
Modern Language Association,
which promotes the study of literature and the humanities, established
disability studies in 2005 as a “division of study.” This says much
about how far the field has come in the last 20 years, and about its
mission.
Through
courses in disability history, theory, legislation, policy, ethics and
the arts, students are taught to think critically about the “lived
lives” of the disabled, and to work to improve quality of life and to
advocate for civil rights. “It’s more than teaching the disabled how to
make an omelet,” Dr. Berberi says. The emphasis is on applying lessons
from the humanities to solving the social struggle at hand.
Steven
J. Taylor, who created the Syracuse program, puts it succinctly:
“Disability studies starts with accepting the disability. Then it asks
the question: ‘How do we equalize the playing field?’ ”
WHERE YOU CAN STUDY
Some
35 colleges and universities tackle that question through graduate and
undergraduate degrees, minors and certificates. Not all get to the
answer in the same way, or agree on what constitutes a successful
endgame. Mariette J. Bates, academic director for the program at the
City University of New York School of Professional Studies, says the
differences stem from a fragmented field (“cognitive doesn’t talk to
physical, and no one talks to mental”) and divergent academic approaches
(theoretical versus clinical).
CUNY, Syracuse University and the University of Illinois at Chicago have the oldest and best-known programs. A
complete, vetted list can be found on the web site for Syracuse’s Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies.
Because of its history and student body, CUNY takes the most applied approach. The program grew from a
Kennedy Fellows program
in special education and rehabilitative counseling, and 70 percent of
those seeking a credential there in disability studies work at service
agencies. CUNY started a four-course graduate certificate in 2004 and,
because of student demand, created a master’s in 2009 and a bachelor’s —
the first in the field and completely online — in 2012.
Syracuse’s
program — an undergraduate minor and an advanced certificate — emerged
from its school of education at a time when the university was
emphasizing educational mainstreaming and dissolving its special
education program. At the graduate school level, candidates from any
discipline can enroll in the certificate of advanced study, or combine
disability studies with law. The only free-standing Ph.D. is at the
University of Illinois’s Chicago campus.
WHY STUDY IT
The
rationale for the interdisciplinary approach? Jobs. Disability studies
has its greatest impact when taken up with another pursuit, academic
or professional, Dr. Taylor says. For doctoral students, an
interdisciplinary approach increases the odds of landing an academic
appointment, since there are few professorships in disability studies
alone.
Graduates
can go on to careers in architecture, management, engineering, policy,
law, rehabilitative medicine, music and the arts. The most obvious
application is in education and human services, including social work
and health care, where advancement often requires certification or a
graduate degree.
What
a credential “signals,” says Noam Ostrander, who has a Ph.D. in
disability studies from U.I.C. and is director of the Master of Social
Work program at DePaul University, “is a nuanced understanding of
disability that is not the tragic, scientific model but a progressive
model of disability that is more empowering.”
WHO IS STUDYING IT
Joseph
Plutz, the coordinator of disability services at the Fashion Institute
of Technology, began as an administrative assistant 10 years ago. With
a background in finance, 15 years in the corporate world and no formal
training in education or social services, he was looking to be
promoted to a counselor position. His office coordinator suggested
CUNY’s certificate, which he earned in 2010. He then continued for a
master’s. The degree, he said, positioned him to work directly with
students, most with cognitive or learning impairments, advising them on
course scheduling, time management and ways to advocate for educational
and, eventually, on-the-job needs.
The
discipline, unsurprisingly, attracts students with disabilities, or
those with a disabled loved one. Forty percent of the students in the
U.I.C. master’s, minor and certificate programs are disabled; about 60
percent of those enrolled in CUNY’s bachelor’s program have a disability
or a disabled child.
April Coughlin
has been in a wheelchair since a car accident left her a paraplegic at
age 6. That didn’t stop her from becoming a triathlete wheelchair
racer or a middle and high school English teacher. Her six years
working in New York City schools galvanized her. She routinely
encountered access issues. She was unable to consider jobs in older
school buildings, some of which house the city’s top schools, because
they were not wheelchair accessible. If she couldn’t get in to teach in
certain schools, she realized, many children with disabilities
couldn’t learn in them either, or see a person with a disability
leading the classroom.
She
wove a disability perspective into her literature curriculum, but saw a
bigger calling: educating teachers across the board about the needs of
students with disabilities. She completed a master’s in disability
studies at CUNY in 2011 and is a Ph.D. candidate in special education
and disability studies at Syracuse. “Disability studies provided me
with the language I needed to describe what I had been going through my
whole life,” she says.
Her goal is to train future educators at the college level. She already has a start. Last summer she was a trainer for
New York City Teaching Fellows.
She also teaches an online course in disability and embodiment for
CUNY, in which she uses memoir writing, videos and film to convey the
experience of being disabled.
