By Emily Riley

Students will have the opportunity to pursue a minor in Disability Studies starting in Spring 2020.

Peter Leone, a faculty member and leader of implementing the minor, says will be beneficial for every student. 

But the minor, said Leone, isn’t something that was thrown together. It’s been in the works for over four years, and was even denied once before being approved by the University Senate Committee on Programs, Curricula, and Courses on October 4. 

According to Leone, in order for a program to be approved, there needs to be a lot of support from the college it would be under, as well as available resources such as professors to teach, the right amount of classes that apply to the minor, graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants, and of course, students interested in the topic. The minor will be a part of the College of Education, which is located in the Benjamin Building. 

According to JoEllen Barnhart, a lecturer and member of the President’s Commission on Disabilities Issues, said the passage of the minor was unanimous. 

The minor consists of 15 credits in various different subjects that tackle issues concerning disabilities. While the official list is currently not public, it will be posted online when students are able to register within the next couple months. 

The minor, said Leone, is relevant to all students, no matter their major. “Disability is a topic and an issue that touches all of us,” he said. “It will help you do whatever your job is, and it will give you a better grasp on ways to create inclusive workspaces to work with colleagues who may be differently abled or disabled”.

“[Leone] was very interested in creating a disabilities minor for students,” said Barnhart. “As was I. I’ve never understood why we can have all these culturally based studies,” she said, but not something focused on disabilities. 

“It’s all courses that are already offered here that are growing up organically, and we just pulled them together and look, it already exists. We just have to collect it and call it something,” said Barnhart.

Within the next couple of weeks, Leone and others involved in the minor will table to provide students more information about the program. Registration will open up shortly after. 

Offering the minor is a part of a bigger conversation concerning disability on campus. 

Ana Palla-Kane, a part-time lecturer for the Kinesiology department, a faculty member for the Division of Information Technology and chair for the President’s Commission on Disability Issues, is working on including accessibility and disability into her regular class curriculum. 

“I’m going to require them to caption [a] video and to submit the caption so the students will leave already with introductory knowledge about how to make content and like online content accessible,” she said. 

Palla-Kane also hopes that someday there will be some sort of disability equity center at the university as a central point to all questions, concerns, and student groups concerning disabilities. 

“Every day we hear about a disabled community. Someone from the disability community comes to us saying they’re facing a barrier,” said Palla-Kane. Having some sort of equity center, she said, would help centralize those concerns, and give concerned students and parents a place to go. 

Barnhart said a minor in Disability Studies is only the beginning. “I think we’re going to see growth there faster than we anticipated. The intent then is to build upon that and create the bachelor’s, and then the masters,” said Barnhart. “It’s huge. I’m very proud of this institution.”