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The University of Toledo will offer the nation's first undergraduate degree in disability studies.
(University of Toledo)
TOLEDO, Ohio - The University of Toledo is offering the nation's first undergraduate degree in disability studies.
The degree program, which begins this fall, includes the study of disability culture and history, disability law and human rights, deaf issues, gender and disability, and autism. The program also includes a mandatory internship.
The university is marketing the program to students interested in careers in social service, public education, advocacy, government policy and health-care administration.
"Disability has long been studied as a biomedical issue, but disability studies is dramatically different," Jim Ferris, who holds the university's endowed chair in disability studies, said in a statement. "Rather than focusing on the characteristics of bodies and functional limitations or impairments, disability studies focuses on disability as a social construct."
The 56 million people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the United States, making up 19 percent of the population, according to 2010 Census Bureau data. And that number is expected to grow as the population ages, Ferris said.
"Everyone becomes disabled if they live long enough. It's part of the aging process," he said.
The program at Toledo will join minors at such colleges as Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California at Berkeley, Inside Higher Ed reported.
University of Toledo also will continue to offer a minor. City University of New York offers an online bachelor's in disability studies for those who have already completed some course work elsewhere.
The creation of a full major is "a big deal," Lennard J. Davis, a leader in the field of disability studies and a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Inside Higher Ed.
"I think this puts disability studies in the same category as women's and gender studies, African-American studies, queer studies, and the like," Davis said. "Disability for too long has been the banished sibling of the other identity and diversity groups."
The University of Illinois at Chicago offers a doctorate in disability studies,
For additional information on the Disability Studies Program, visit
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