Author: Sherrie Bayne

A move towards disability studies has begun to build momentum. Over the past decade, graduate research programs at universities throughout the nation have started to create certain courses of research to better understand mental and physical impairments.

Topics addressed include the social, cultural, and political role disability has played in society. Pupils learn the role people with disabilities have played in the development and implementation of many areas, from literature to social policy.

Such programs aim to arm students with a knowledge base that will increase disability awareness and, ultimately, promote social change. The development of disability studies programs is important for at least two reasons.

First, disability awareness is only going to rise as these professionals enter society after completing their courses of study. University clarifies a crucial part of their Master of Professional Studies in Disability Studies program is to provide pupils with the tools to educate and increase awareness across various audiences.

Graduates will attain the skill of communicating disability awareness and tolerance to a variety of audiences upon graduation, an invaluable skill necessary in spreading the message for any subject. In this way, graduates will be able to convey awareness and tolerance to demographically or otherwise starkly differing groups of individuals.

This promotes the proliferation of handicap education by raising the efficacy with which it is taught. More successful disability schooling, in short, paves the way for awareness and understanding.

Furthermore, however, it’s a sign that large scale social change is on the way. The near future will see an increasing population of working professionals with a deep comprehension of different disabilities, across a range of different societal and historical contexts.

These professionals will be instrumental in helping to assimilate those to the workforce, in counseling persons with disabilities along with their families, and in furthering the area of disability education and research. Moreover, the growing number of disability studies courses as well as the bodies which fulfill their lecture halls illustrate a developing interest and empathy for persons with disabilities, a more critical component to spreading awareness.

The trend in disability studies programs is due to a rising number of working professionals with substantial handicap education and training. This translates to narrowing the gap between those with a handicap, and people without. Graduates will have the resources and expertise to collaborate with individuals with disabilities, assisting them to become active community members.