Society for Disability Studies

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DIS 620: Disability as Diversity Course Syllabus
Spring, 2008
Faculty
Stephen Gilson, Ph.D.
201 Corbett Hall
stephen_gilson@umit.maine.edu
Voice - 581-1263
V/TTY- 581-1084
Elizabeth DePoy, Ph.D.
201 Corbett Hall
edepoy@maine.edu
Voice-581-1469
V/TTY- 581-1084
Overview: Building on DIS 600, students in this course will examine and analyze the service, support, and community contexts in which people with disabilities live, work, and participate. The concepts of accommodation (including assistive technology and adaptation) and universal design/access will be used as analytic lenses through which to critically examine service and community responses to diversity and difference and to advance collaborative leadership strategies to improve inclusion and social justice for all people including those with disabilities.

Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, each student will:
1. Distinguish between concepts of accommodation and universal access;
2. Analyze recent intellectual, social, economic, technological, cultural, political, and medical trends affecting community contexts in which people with disabilities participate;
3. Identify and analyze ethical dilemmas present in community, intellectual, policy, and practice responses to disability;
4. Demonstrate mastery of current federal and state legislation and policies affecting legitimacy determination and community response to individuals with disabilities and their families;
5. Through applying accommodation and universal access principles within an ethical framework, critically analyze disability legitimacy and response advanced by legislation, and diverse socio-cultural contexts;
6. Synthesize theory and knowledge from diverse readings and resources to develop logical plans for improving universal access to community resources and opportunities.
Prerequisite: DIS 600 or by permission of instructor
Credits: 3
Readings and Resources:
Selected readings will be assigned. A course pack can be obtained at Gossamer Press and a copy will be located in 220 Corbett Hall. Please obtain at least 20 additional readings related to universal access policy and practice, rights and abrogation of rights in policy, practice and environments (no more than 5 years old), and submit an annotated bibliography at the end of the course. Please post and share readings with your colleagues.
Citations and dates for completion:
Burgstahler, S. (2007). Equal access: Universal design of libraries. University of Washington. (March 23)
DePoy, E. & Gilson S.F. (in press). Designing university techscapes: An inter-organizational universal design collaboration to advance equality of participation in university organizations, In J. Salmons and L. Wilson (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Electronic Collaboration and Organizational Synergy. (Feb. 15)

DePoy, E. & Gilson S. (in press). Healing the disjuncture: Social work disability practice. In K.M. Sowers & C.N. Dulmus (Series Editors) & B. W. White (Vol. Ed.), Comprehensive Handbook of Social Work and Social Welfare: Vol. 1. The Profession of Social Work (pp. X-X). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (Jan. 22)

Gilson, S.F. and DePoy, E. (in press) Explanatory legitimacy: A model for disability policy development and analysis. In I. Colby (Ed.), Social Policy and Policy Practice. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. (Jan. 29)

Gomes, R. (n.d.). Creative development of a sustainable universal design environment. DAI: San Francisco State University. (Jan. 29)

National Endowment for the Arts. (2003). Envisioning universal design; Creating an inclusive society , . (Jan. 29)

Reynolds, K., Turner, J. & Haslam, A. (2000). When are we better than them and they worse than us? A closer look at social discrimination in positive and negative domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 64-80. (Jan. 29)

Richards, C. (2005). Toward universal access in the workforce development system. NCWD, (March 20)

Teaching-Learning Methods:
A variety of teaching-learning projects, planned collaboratively among the instructors and students will comprise the methods used in this course. Most of our work will be done outside of a formal class. Please schedule class sessions below into your calendar for the spring and make time to meet with us during the week.
Student Responsibilities:
Students are responsible for meeting with instructors regularly and for keeping updated on changes in the syllabus, dates, readings and assignments.
Student Accommodations: Any student who because of a disability may need special arrangements or accommodations to meet the requirements of this course is encouraged to see me at your earliest convenience.
If the accommodation the student requests for a disability requires material resources or for some reason cannot be provided by the faculty member, please inform the school's disability liaison in writing of your request. In turn, you may be asked to file documentation with a central university office. It is possible that university experts will confer with the liaison to determine what kind of accommodations should be made to facilitate your participation in class.
ASSIGNMENTS:
Assignment #1: Policy Responses…20%
In a group analyze the Human Rights and Persons with Disabilities
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/rights/humanrights.htm
1. Summary of the history and current policy.
2. Historical context- what intellectual, scientific, cultural, economic, political, and social factors influenced the passage of this mandate?
3. What explanations for atypicalities are within the scope of this mandate? Are they internal, external, or both?
4. Are the principles in line with accommodation to disability or universal approaches?
5. How does the global scope influence the mandate?
6. How do you anticipate that this policy will affect our global physical, social, economic, and virtual environments?
Provide evidence for your claims - “How do you know?”
Provide Reference Page - in addition to any class readings that you use; you must provide 6 additional scholarly references
As a class, prepare a poster to be displayed in DIS 450 on Feb. 26 at - 4:00PM- 6:30 PM.
Assignment 2: Lives…….20%
Please select one of the books provided in class. Read the book and answer the following questions in a written report.
How is typical/atypical defined in this book?
What explanation of disability is explicit or implicit in the book?
What is the legitimate response to disability in this book?
How is accommodation/universal access taken on in this book?
What view of disability identity is explicit or implicit in the book?
What view of human rights is explicit or implicit in this book?
How does the book address the reciprocal influence of the environment and the body?
Who wrote the book?
How did the book inform your view of disability?
How is dependence/independence taken on in this book?
What is interesting about this life that made this story publishable?
What parts of the individual’s life would you like to incorporate into your own?
What parts do you find undesirable? Horrible? Why?

Please post your review to the First Class folder and attend DIS 450 on March 18 from 4:00-6:30PM.
Assignment #3: Second Life …30%
Second Life- log on, obtain a name, and design your avatar. Give your rationale for your choices of name and appearance. Log on at least one hour each week.
Keep a weekly diary answering these questions:
1. Describe your activity and the environments which you visit, why and how did you select them?
2. How do you navigate and communicate on Second Life?
3. Describe and react to the appearance, behavior, and your assumptions about other avatars. What type of people in the physical world do you think these avatars represent? Why?
4. How do you obtain information on people, events, and resources in Second Life?
5. What is disability on Second Life?
6. To what extent are you disabled or not on Second Life? Why?
7. Compare and contrast disability in Second Life to disability in the physical world with particular attention to the uncoupling of bodies and backgrounds from diversity.
Please attend DIS 450 on April 22 from 4:00-6:30 PM.
Project #4 - Space Assessment….20%: Select one of the following spaces (or one that you clear with us) and assess it for social, physical, economic, virtual, and sensory access.
Bangor Public Library
University of Maine Art Museum
BAT bus
Bangor Mall
Paper due on March 23. Please post to the First Class folder and attend DIS 470 on March 25 from 6:30-8:30 PM.
Please read:
Universal Design and the Human-Environment Juncture Continuum (DePoy & Gilson, n.d.)
The theory of universal design maps an approach to shaping diverse environments for the widest range of difference (Nasar & Evans-Cowley, 2007). Unlike accommodation, which fashions special solutions to barriers encountered by atypical individuals who cannot access or use standard environments and resources, or inclusive design (Imre & Hall, 2001) which seeks to eliminate barriers for disabled populations, universal principles ostensibly guide a socially just design process from its initial conception through its maintenance, stewardship, and evolution. Underpinning this approach is the value that human difference is inherently good, exists, changes, and should be an important element that drives the design and care of abstract, virtual, built, and natural environments and resources (DePoy & Gilson, 2007).
However, because of its historical emergence as a response to disabled bodies, universal design is often mistaken for and limited to an inclusive response to disability. The distinctions among terms such as barrier free design, inclusive design, accommodative design, adaptive design, universal design, universal access, and maximum usability are often unclear. As the basis for this discussion, we define each in Table 1 below.

Table 1-Defintion of Terms
Term Definition
Barrier free design Practices focusing on retrofitting standard environments typically in compliance with legal access statues such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Disability Discrimination Act, UK and Australia.
Accommodative design Response to disabled populations within the constraints of what is “reasonable.”
Inclusive design Attitudes, values and practices focusing on the needs of disabled people (Imre & Hall, 2001).
Adaptive design Customized environment and products for disabled individuals (DePoy & Gilson, 2004).
Universal design The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." ().
Universal access The ability of the greatest number of people to reach environments and resources (DePoy & Gilson, 2004).
Maximum usability The ability of the greatest number of people to participate in and use environments and resources respectively (DePoy & Gilson, 2005/6; 2007).

Given its roots in disability rights and responses, it is not surprising that universal design is often used interchangeably with disability-focused design concepts highlighted in Table 1. More recently, universal design has been expanded to refer to planning for other groups who have experienced barriers to environments and resources, such as those who have limited literacy, cultural practices and preferences which are not consistent with environmental standards, economic limitations, and so forth, introducing even more variables and factors to be considered and clarified as universal design.
We therefore distinguish universal design as a set of thinking and action processes that seek to reduce disjuncture or ill fit between humans and environments and maximize full juncture, or access and usability for the broadest range of individuals and groups. Thus, we delimit design as the human processes, and the outcome of design as the continuum of human-environment juncture, from disjuncture to full juncture.
Because design thinking and action are creative processes that result in dynamic and evolving outcomes, human-environment juncture is not discretely divided into measureable standards. Table 2 below presents the three levels of juncture for your analysis.
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Interview and observation: Through systematically interviewing and observing users of the space (employees, consumers, service recipients, etc.) determine the level of access according to the chart in Table 2 below. Include a verbatim transcript of your interviews, your analysis and your rationale for the choice of juncture level.
Table 2 - Three Levels of Human-Environment Juncture
Full Juncture Compliance Juncture Disjuncture
Environmental, space, and product design outcomes which take into account the full diversity of human bodies, ideas, experiences, and preferences and hold full participation as its value foundation. Environmental, space, and product design outcome which responds to compliance with minimal legal physical and sensory access standards. Environmental, space, and product design outcome which does not account for access for diverse human bodies, preferences or experiences.

Project #5 - Annotated Bibliography…10%

CLASS SCHEDULE:
Please see meeting dates above. We will schedule other dates to discuss literature.