This course will present the history and development of disability definitions, models, classification schemes, measurement approaches and their applications. Historical perspectives will structure a discussion of defining and measuring disability based on the enabling-disabling process. Discussion of the epistemological foundations of disability based on assumptions of nature and normality progresses to legal, clinical and scholarly definitions. The purpose of model and conceptual components will preface an assessment and comparison of the Nagi, Institute of Medicine and World Health Organization symbolic Models; the Verbrugge & Jette and the social model. The multilevel structure will be emphasized as a linkage between multiple disciplines and diverse strategies required to examine, evaluate and intervene to address disability. The use of these models in reserarch, clinical, and community settings will be assessed using current research literature. Measurement of disability will be discussed as related to the theoretical models of disability, the emerging paradigm associated with disability studies, disease specific and general measurement as well as individual and environmental/social measurements. The course will briefly introduce measurement issues in cross sectional studies relating impairment to disability, quantifying disability and its social and economic consequences, clinical trials of interventions and epidemiological studies of disability incidence, prevalence and outcomes. An overall goal of this course is to progress the student toward the critique of research methodology utilized in, created and shaped by disability studies and how model and meaurement issues influence study design and epistemological features.
