(Dis)ability and Health

1 Unit · Graduate

This course explores the complex intersections between disability and public health, challenging students to critically examine how ability, ableism, and related constructs shape health outcomes, access, and equity. Through an interdisciplinary lens, students will engage with foundational and emerging frameworks?including the medical and social model of disability, and disability justice?to understand how disability is constructed, experienced, and addressed within public health systems.Topics include body size and anti-fat bias, neurodiversity, chronic illness, mental health, and the lived experiences of disabled individuals navigating healthcare systems. Students will analyze how public health policies and practices can perpetuate or dismantle ableism and will consider the role of intersectionality in shaping disability experiences across race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other identities.The course emphasizes critical reflection, community engagement, and advocacy, encourages students to move beyond deficit-based approaches and toward inclusive, justice-oriented public health strategies. Through readings, discussions, case studies, and guest lectures, students will develop the analytical tools necessary to evaluate public health interventions and policies with a disability lens.