The Disability Studies Program

The New Ryerson Polytechnic University Bachelor of Applied Arts degree program in disability studies offers a departure from other disability-related academic opportunities. While rehabilitation-orientated programs may reference the social context of disability, Ryerson’s Disability Studies Program holds this as its primary focus.

Students develop an increased awareness of the socio-political context of disability and learn to apply this perspective while working with people with disabilities. The program prepares them for leadership roles in direct care, management, community development, policy, planning and advocacy.

Last January, Michael Enright of CBC Radio’s "This Morning" discussed the School of Disability Studies with Melanie Panitch, Director, and Catherine Frazee, a disability rights activist involved in designing the program. This excerpt from the show is printed with permission.

ME: From where did the pressure come to set up this program, which I understand is unique in the country?

MP: It came out of the restructuring of post-secondary education in Ontario, making it easier for students to move between post-secondary systems. Ryerson is a leader in degree completion programs, and saw the opportunity to provide for what was considered a gap in education for students coming out of the college system with a background in disability. There were individual courses at universities, but no program from a disability studies perspective.

ME: What is a disability studies perspective?

CF: It starts with lived experience, and the analysis of people who live with disability. The fundamental understanding we emphasize throughout the program is that people with disabilities are disadvantaged. We all know and accept that, but what we want our students to come to really understand in all its ramifications is that the source of the disadvantage is social, political and economic rather than physiological.

ME: Isn’t there a danger in ghettoizing a program under one umbrella, rather than scattering the whole thing throughout a multiplicity of courses in the university?

CF: Ghettoization has been a very destructive factor in the lives of people with disabilities but, by the same token, one of the most effective antidotes to having been ghettoized is the formation of a strong and healthy sense of identity. What we see within the community of people with disabilities who see their struggles as a rights-based struggle is a formation of prideful and positive identity and a sense of being part of a wider political struggle that is in itself the first step toward emancipation.

ME: But wouldn’t you get that if the program -- or elements of it -- were in political science or social work courses?

MP: Well, in fact, that’s what we do. Half of the program is specific to disability studies, and that’s the core program. The other half is delivered by different departments, including Politics, Geography and Philosophy. Even the required core courses are developed in collaboration with the departments that will be teaching them; for example, a Philosophy course in Ethics and Disability, and a Sociology course called Media and Images of Inequality. The professors include a disability lens in their course to accommodate the students in this program.

ME: Catherine, you taught the first course. I can imagine what they learned at your hand. What did you learn from them?

CF: One always learns how incredibly exciting it is to see the penny drop. And it drops all the time, but not at the same moment, for every student. One of the most exciting events was an evening that introduced students to disability culture, to disability in art, and we had performances and films and readings of, by, and from disabled artists. I think that touched the students in a way that academics doesn’t always do.

ME: What you are describing expands the medical model -- maybe even ignores it, but certainly goes beyond.

MP: It doesn’t ignore the medical model but, yes, it goes beyond. It suggests that if you adhere to a medical or rehabilitation model where the focus is on fixing the person, on the individual’s deviancy or problem, then the social policies and interventions that flow from that are of one nature. On the other hand, if you take a social and political perspective where you’re looking at barriers, the interventions and social policies that flow from that are incredibly different, because you look at discrimination. Traditionally, you would have learned about
disability in medical school, in nursing, in psychology, where the orientation is towards individual deviancy or personal adjustment. Disability studies says that is not adequate to address issues of poverty, abuse or other experiences.

ME: What should the ideal graduate of this course look like?

CF: They should have a capacity for critical thought and critical reflections upon policies, practices and structures, and some courage to intervene when those policies, practices and structure are unjust.

ME: Are you talking politics here?

CF: Not necessarily. Within the organizations they work for, even in their coaching and mentoring with their co-workers and people with disabilities, they can be educators -- with, in addition to that, a new level of respect for the contributions that people with disabilities make, for the richness of our lives and for the struggles that we face.

(For information on School of Disability Studies Ryerson’s call (416) 979-5000, ext. 7037; e-mail: ds@acs.ryerson.ca; or visit
www.ryerson.ca/ds.)