Disability Studies Minor

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Department Chair

Christine Shane

Disability Studies is an interdisciplinary minor within the Behavioral Sciences Department offering a liberal arts approach to the study of disability. The undergraduate Disability Studies Minor provides students with knowledge of the historical, social, aesthetic, literary, legal, educational, philosophical, biological and political framing of disability. Students develop a strong interdisciplinary foundation with emphasis on cultural constructions of human ability, and the intersections of disability, race, gender, sex, age, class and other markers of diversity and difference.

Students may select from a variety of courses concerned with matters of perceived and measured human ability and capacity. The student is required to take a core set of courses supplemented by a choice from a list of disability-related courses. The minor is open to any student in good academic standing at the university.

Program Curriculum Requirements

IDIS 1002 - Introduction to Disability Studies 3 cr.
Or
HMSV 1100 - Introduction to Human Services 3 cr.
IDIS 4004 - Capstone Seminar 3 cr.

Cluster A

Choose a minimum of two courses from the list below

BIOL 3700 - Bioethics 3 cr.
COMM 4200 - Human Communication 3 cr.
ENGL 2300 - Literature and Disability 3 cr.
EXSS 3600 - Exercise Response and Adaptations in Special Populations 3 cr.
PHIL 2001 - Medical Ethics 3 cr.
PHIL 2500 - Contemporary Ethical Problems 3 cr.
POLS 3000 - Public Policy Analysis: Case Studies in American Politics 3 cr.
SPED 2210 - Understanding Diversity and Disability 3 cr.
SPED 3020 - Students with Emotional/Behavioral and Autism Spectrum Disorders 3 cr.

Cluster B

Choose a minimum of two courses from below

ASL 1000 - American Sign Language (ASL) for Beginners I 3 cr.
ASL 1100 - American Sign Language (ASL) for Beginners II 3 cr.
HMSV 1100 - Introduction to Human Services 3 cr. *
HMSV 3410 - Building Community Supports for Persons with Disabilities 3 cr.
PSY 2350 - Abnormal Psychology 3 cr.
PSY 2370 - Psychology of Human Relations 3 cr.
PSY 3200 - Developmental Psychopathology 3 cr.
SOC 2300 - Sociology of Aging 3 cr.
SOC 2700 - Social Problems 3 cr.
SOC 2720 - Medical Sociology 3 cr.
SOC 3500 - Law and Society 3 cr.
* To be used as an elective if not taken as the required course.