Printer FriendlyThe Graduate Certificate in Disability Outcomes recognizes the tension between the rehabilitative, medical, and social models of disability, but accepts these differences as threads for the development of disability research as an integrative knowledge base. Disability emanates not from physiological or cognitive difference in isolation, but in interaction with the environment and society (including its values and practices). Instead of treating disability as simply inherent in individuals, the Graduate Certificate in Disability Outcomes seeks to transform the understanding of disability from an individual deficit to a complex byproduct of social, environmental and biological forces. This perspective illuminates how individuals labeled as "disabled" are treated collectively in a manner that diminishes their economic, interpersonal, psychological, cultural, political and physical well-being, relegating them to membership in a socially disadvantaged group. This integrative approach broadens investigations regarding the development of disability from chronic disease, impairment, and functional limitations; promoting an enlarged vision of therapeutic intervention, medical system approaches, service programs, technological and environmental design.
The Graduate Certificate in Disability Outcomes is open to any scholar committed to studying how disability develops and what can be done to reduce disability by intervening at all levels of the disability process. A particular strength of the Graduate Certificate in Disability Outcomes is access to diverse faculty mentors and resources in the health fields, engineering, sciences and the social sciences. Students in the program conduct research across pathology, impairment, clinical, social and policy perspectives. The diversity of faculty involved with the Graduate Certificate in Disability Outcomes at UML offers a unique opportunity to study the full complexity of disability in its multi-layered, interactional dynamics.