"Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability."
Investigates the experiences of people with disabilities in literature and culture.
Disability Rights Movement: The history and evolution of the movement for disability rights, from the early advocacy efforts to the development of the Americans with Disabilities Act and beyond.
Disability Identity: The ways in which individuals with disabilities understand and construct their identities, including the intersections of disability with other identities such as race, gender, and sexuality.
Ableism: The cultural and social assumptions that privilege able-bodied people and lead to the marginalization and exclusion of people with disabilities.
Representation of Disability in Literature and Film: The ways in which disability is portrayed in literature and film, and how those representations shape our understanding of disability.
Disability and Technology: The impact of technology on the lives of people with disabilities, including assistive technologies and the challenges of digital accessibility.
Disability and Education: The challenges faced by students with disabilities in accessing education, including the history of special education and the development of inclusive education practices.
Disability and the Environment: The ways in which environments can be designed to be more inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities, including physical, social, and cultural environments.
Disability and Employment: The challenges faced by people with disabilities in finding and keeping employment, including the impact of ableism and the development of disability-inclusive workplaces.
Disability and the Media: The ways in which disability is represented in the media, including news coverage and representation in popular culture.
Disability and Health Care: The challenges faced by people with disabilities in accessing health care, including ableism in medical practice and the development of disability-inclusive health care policies.
Literary Disability Studies: A field of study that looks at representations of disability in literature and explores the relationship between disability and literary form.
Cultural Disability Studies: A field of study that investigates the cultural aspects of disability, including cultural attitudes, beliefs, and practices related to disability.
Disability and Society Studies: A field of study that explores the effects of disability on society, and the ways in which society can support individuals with disabilities.
Critical Disability Studies: A field of study that focuses on the intersection of disability with other social categories, such as race, gender, sexuality, and class.
Embodiment and Disability Studies: A field of study that examines how the experience of disability is shaped by the body, and how cultural and social meanings of disability are constructed through embodied experiences.
Medical Humanities and Disability Studies: A field of study that explores the intersection of medicine and disability, and the ways in which medical practices and discourses shape our understanding of disability.
Disability and Performance Studies: A field of study that focuses on the ways in which disability is represented and performed in various artistic forms, including theatre, dance, and film.
Disability and Education Studies: A field of study that examines the ways in which disability is addressed in educational settings, and seeks to promote inclusive educational practices.
"The field focused on the division between 'impairment' and 'disability', where impairment was an impairment of an individual's mind or body, while disability was considered a social construct."
"This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability: the social and medical models of disability."
"The social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field."
"In recent years, the division between the social and medical models has been challenged."
"Recent investigations suggest using 'cross-sectional markers of stratification' may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of exacerbating disablement processes."
"Disability studies courses include work in disability history, theory, legislation, policy, ethics, and the arts."
"However, students are taught to focus on the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities in practical terms."
"The field is focused on increasing individuals with disabilities' access to civil rights and improving their quality of life."
"Disability studies primarily emerged in the US, the UK, and Canada."
"In 1986, the Section for the Study of Chronic Illness, Impairment, and Disability of the Social Science Association (United States) was renamed the Society for Disability Studies."
"The first US disabilities studies program emerged in 1994 at Syracuse University."
"The first edition of the Disabilities Studies Reader was published in 1997."
"The field grew rapidly over the next ten years."
"Germany looks at queer disability studies since the beginning of the early 20th century."
"The disability studies in Germany are influenced by the written literary works of feminist sexologists who study how being disabled affects one's sexuality and ability to feel pleasure."
"In Norway, disability studies are focused on in the literary context."
"A variation emerged in 2017 with the first accessibility studies program at Central Washington University."
"[The program has] an interdisciplinary focus on social justice, universal design, and international Web Accessibility Guidelines (WAG3) as a general education knowledge base."
"Disability studies were also conducted in other countries through different lenses."