History of Disability Advocacy and Social Change

DSAB

631

History of Disability Advocacy and Social Change

Efforts by individuals with disabilities and their allies to assert their human and civil rights have taken many forms over the past century. Early struggles to resist segregation and obtain integrated employment by groups such as the League for the Physically Handicapped in 1935 would be followed in due course by the Parents, Independent Living, and Self-Advocacy Movements. The success of each movement relied on a firm belief in universal human rights and a broad range of individual and systemic advocacy strategies and tactics. While an understanding of this history is important to effectively assume the role of "advocate" in the 21st Century, equally important is an understanding of the basic conceptual and legal frameworks that are unique to disability advocacy whether for oneself, on behalf of another, or within a collective effort for systemic change. As such, the purpose of this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the social structures that have served to exclude and limit the life choices of individuals with disabilities and evolution of disability rights efforts to overcome those limitations. This course will provide an historical overview of universal human rights; an examination of current constitutional and civil rights granted by Federal statute. It will also help students acquire tools essential to formulating personal and collective advocacy approaches for asserting those rights and challenging exclusionary societal strictures as they currently exist or may emerge.

Graduate

Yes