UC to offer certificate in disability studies

Students at the University of Cincinnati will be able to enroll to earn a certificate in disability studies in fall semester, 2022. Offered through the College of Arts and Sciences, the certificate will explore the experiences of disabled people, and the role of the disability community and the community at large in addressing equity, access and justice.

The creation of the certificate program was inspired in part by the experiences of students, says Cheli Reutter, associate professor of American and African-American literature, who helped develop and directs the program.

A key intent of the program is to cultivate understanding of ableism, or the cultural perception that people with disabilities are deficient, versus different, and through that examine policies and implicit biases that enable discrimination in favor of able-bodied people.

“Ableism is arguably the most overlooked and intractable form of social bias,” Hulgin says. “Given the mindset that disability is an individual tragedy—something to be pitied or remediated—people tend to resist or deny the fact that ableism exists … With the opportunity to shift focus from individual deficit to understanding misconceptions and socially constructed barriers, the disabilities studies certificate will provide students with a lens for identifying and addressing such forms of ableism.”

The field of disabilities studies outside a medical context first emerged some 30 years ago, coinciding roughly with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation, public accommodations, and more. The first such program began at Syracuse University in 1994, and since then programs have emerged at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.

UC’s addition of a disability studies certificate is particularly timely given cultural shifts that have taken place over the last decade or more, Hulgin says. “Concepts that are essential to addressing ableism, such as interdependence, community building and universal design are eroded by the current sociopolitical forces of privatization, economization and emphasis on individualism,” she says. “At the extreme are efforts to ban anti-bias curriculum. While race has been targeted, the effort to defend anti-bias curriculum must include the advancement of critical disabilities studies.”

Students who want to pursue the certificate may come from any degree-granting undergraduate program at UC. The disability studies certificate will complement a wide range of majors and minors, helping prepare students for careers in law, education, medicine, psychology, politics, social work and more. Reutter says future plans for the program include opening it to non-matriculated students, because of its breadth of appeal.

“It’s about really understanding the disability identity, experience and empowerment for individuals and also within mainstream culture or specific social and cultural structures,” Reutter says. “It’s about thinking systemically and structurally, changing-making and advocacy, and recognizing the insight and authority of people with disabilities.”

Featured image at top: Aerial image of UC's Uptown West Campus. Credit/Will Greer for Unsplash.