Printer FriendlyDisability research is driven by efforts from a number of disciplines. At UML, the approach is interdisciplinary and wide-ranging. Potentially all aspects of disability are included in the spectrum of inquiry, providing the scholarship is informed by a critical analysis of the social, political, biological and cultural determinants. That contextual foundation is provided by a core of required course work that reviews and analyzes disability from a variety of perspectives: past and current definitions, fundamental concepts, theories, practices, policies, histories, institutions, communities, and events that shape our understanding of biological and cognitive differences.
Within this framework, foci of study may include but are not limited to sociological and historical approaches to disability; legal, political, and economic issues; the development of pathology, impairment, and functional limitations leading to disability, therapeutic intervention, medical system approaches, and service programs; vocational and educational concerns; family issues; and psychosocial aspects of the disability experience.
This program aims to prepare future scholars and researchers who have both an in-depth knowledge of a particular aspect of disability research and a broad knowledge of the entire spectrum of disability research. The diversity of academic preparation and research interests among the faculty allows the program to support individualized programs of study for students with scholarly interests in a broad range of disability-related areas.
OBJECTIVES
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Develop a Graduate Certificate Program in Disability Research before May 2006
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Develop a PhD Program in Disability Research before May 2008
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Train graduates who will have the skills and the commitment to explore, challenge and help improve the knowledge of disability as a complex interplay of social and biological forces
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Produce scholars prepared to take prominent roles in advancing and integrating the scientific and social study of disability; graduates of this program will take leadership roles in interdisciplinary settings as well as academic programs in a variety of disability-related fields