New Course Proposal
Sociology of Disabilities
Sociology 439
A. Course Description
1. Catalogue Description
The course focuses upon the perceptions, social definitions and interactions of different kinds of disabilities and persons with disabilities by individuals, groups and institutions in the larger society. It examines the social organization of research, foundations, advocacy groups, support groups and other types of groups that work with disabilities.
Prerequisites: SOC 150. Grade only. Offered yearly.
2. Course Outline
Week #1:
Introduction to class
Differences in Everyday Life
Awareness activities; Interpretive methodology
Social construction of disabilities
Week #2:
How we respond to differences
Awareness activities and exercises
Selection of interest areas
Public perceptions of disabilities
Week #3:
Medical, legal and societal definitions of disabilities
Awareness activities
Student web reports on societal definitions
Week #4:
Understanding your reactions
Discussion of experience and interpretation
Awareness activities
Disability social movements
Student web reports on social movements
Week #5:
Detecting, deciding, doing and debriefing; responses to disabilities
Awareness Activities
Disability education and awareness organizations and associations
Student web reports on education and awareness organizations
Week #6:
People who look different
Awareness activities
Social problems of disabilities
Student web reports on social problems of disabilities
Week #7:
People who move differently
Awareness activities
Advocacy organizations
Student web reports on advocacy organizations
Week #8:
People who communicate differently
Awareness Activities
Family, education, gender and ethnicity aspects
Student web reports on family and related social relations
Week #9:
People who behave differently
Awareness activities
Occupations & careers
Student web reports on occupations and careers
Week #10:
People who learn differently
Awareness activities
Politics of disabilities
Student web reports on politics of disabilities
Week #11:
People with Nonvisible disabilities
Awareness activities
Leisure recreation, social skills, sexuality
Student web reports on leisure, social and sexuality
Week #12:
Understanding and Guiding Children’s Reactions
Awareness activities
Foundation research; assistive technologies
Social research methods and disabilities
Student web reports on social research and disabilities
Week #13:
Expanding our vision
Progress Reports
Week #14:
Oral reports
Week #15:
Oral reports
3. Basic Instructional Methods
Lectures cover each of the sociological aspects of the disability outlined in the plan above. Each student completes the awareness exercises and these are discussed in class. Students select a particular disability to study and upon which to prepare a paper and oral report. Each week students report the results of their web search on their disability related topic.
4. Course Requirements
Completion of awareness exercises and discussion; web reports on their disability topic each week; written exams; progress reports on their paper; oral report on their final paper; a final, written paper; final exam.
Evaluation by grade (A-F).
5. Course Materials
a. Text
Miller, Nancy B & Catherine C. Sammons, Everybody’s Different: Understanding and Changing Our Reactions to Disabilities. Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore: 1999.
6. References
Alston, Reginald J & Carla J. McCowan. 1995. “Perception of Family Competence and Adaptation to Illness Among African Americans with Disabilities.” Journal of Rehabilitation (January/February/March):27-32.
Blackorby, Jose and Mary Wagner. 1996. “Longitudinal Postschool Outcomes of Youth with Disabilities: Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study,” Exceptional Children (March-April ) No. 5:399-415.
Campbell, Jane. 1996. “Growing Pains, ‘Disability Politics – The Journey Explained and Described.” Internet publication URL: http://www.independentliving.org/docs6/campbell1996.html.
Eddy, Linda L. & Alexis J. Walker. 1999. “The Impact of Children with Chronic Health Problems on Marriage.” Journal of Family Nursing 5(l):10-32.
Fennick, Ellen and James Royle. 2003. “Community Inclusion for Children and Youth with Developmental Disabilities,” Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. Volume 18, Number 1 (Spring):20-27.
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, New York:Doubleday Anchor.
Guernsey, Diane. 2006. “Autism’s Angels”, in Town & Country (August):90-102, 131-134.
Hastings, Richard P., Hannah Thomas and Nicole Delwiche. 2002. “Grandparent Support for Families of Children with Down’s Syndrome.” Journal of applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 15:97-104.
Kalyanpur, Maya, Beth Harry, Tom Skrtic. 2000. “Equity and Advocacy Expectations of Culturally Diverse Families’ Participation in Special Education,” in International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 47(4).
Lang, Susan. 2001. “New Policies Would Put Young People with Diabilities in Workforce.” Human Ecology 29(1):2.
Lloyd, Margaret. 2001 “The Politics of Disability and Feminism: Discord or Synthesis?” Sociology 35 (No. 3): 715-728.
LoBello, Steven, Andrea Underhil, Pamela Valentine, Thomas Stroud, Alfred Artolucci & Phillip R. Fine. 2003. “Social Integration and Life and Family Satisfaction in survivors of Injury at 5 Years Postinjury.” Vol. 40(4):293-300.
Malhotra, Ravi. 2001. “The Politics of the Disability Right Movements”, New Politics (Summer) 8 (No. 3 new series).
Mandleco, Barbara, Susanne Olsen, Tina Dyches & Elaine Marshall. 2003. “The Relationship Between Family and Sibling Functioning in Families Raising a Child with a Disability.” Journal of Family Nursing, 9(4):365-396.
Marks, Nadine F. “Does It Hurt to Care? Caregiving, Work-Family Conflict, and Midlife Well-Being,” pp. 951-966 in Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 60, No. 4, November, 1998.
Opperman, Sannette and Erna Alant. 2003. “The Coping Responses of the Adolescent siblings of Children with Severe Disabilities.” Disability and Rehabilitation.
Pearl, Ruth, Thomas Farmer, Richard Van Acker, Philip Rodkin, Kelly Bost, Molly Coe & Wanda Henley.
1998. “The Social Integration of Students with Mild Disabilities in General Education Classroom: Peer Group Membership and Peer-Assessed Social Behavior.” The Elementary School Journal 99(2):167-199.
Pejlert, Anita. 2001. “Being a Parent of an Adult Son or Daughter with Severe Mental Illness Receiving Professional Care: Parents’ Narratives.” Health and social Care in the Community 9(4):194-204.
Rea, Patricia. 2002. “Outcomes for Students with Learning Disabilities in Inclusive and Pullout Programs.” Exceptional Children 68(2):203-223.
Sacks, Oliver. 1995. An Anthropologist on Mars. New York:Alfred A. Knopf.
Schreibman, Laura. 2005. The Science & Fiction of Autism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Press.
Schwochau, Susan and Peter Blanck, “Does the ADA Disable the Disabled?—More Comments,” Industrial Relations, Volume 42, No. 1, (January 2003).
Stoneman, Zolinda. “Supporting Positive Sibling Relationships During Childhood,” Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, Vol. 7, pp134-142, 2001.
Turnbull, H. Rutherford III, Gwen Beegle and Matthew J. Stowe, “The Core Concepts of Disability Policy Affecting Families Who Have Children with Disabilities”, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Winter 2001, Vol. 12, No. 3, 133-145.
Varni, James W., Lori Ann Rubenfeld, Darlene Talbot and Yoshio Setoguchi. “Family Functioning, Temperament, and Psychologic Adaptation in Children with Congenital or Acquired Limb Deficiencies,” Pediatric, Vol. 84, No. 2, August 1989.
Wheat, Christine. 1998. “Campaign for Dignity Makes History.” Fund Raising Management 29(5):23-26.
Zebrowitz, Leslie A. 1995. Reading Faces: Window to the Soul? New York: Westview Press.
B. Rationale
1. Focus and Objectives of the Course
The focus of the course is upon the various ways in which the social institutions and organizations of society effect and are effected by individuals and their disabilities. The objective of the course is to provide knowledge on an important aspect of diversity in society, individuals with disabilities, and the social organization of society in regard to disabilities. Included in the objectives is an increased awareness of disabilities, and how to more effectively respond to them.
2. The course provides an additional elective for the “Health and Human Service Organizations” option within the B.A. Sociology program. The knowledge of the Sociology of Disabilities expands student preparation for work with the many not-for-profit organizations which work with this condition which affects millions of Americans and members of other societies.
3. Course(s) which may be dropped if this course is approved
If this course is approved, then the B.A. Sociology program would drop Sociology 428 – Small Towns and Non-Metro Regions.
C. Impact of this Course on other Departments, Programs, Majors, or Minors
1. Does this course increase or decrease the total credits required by a major or minor of any other department? No it does not.
2. List the departments(s), if any, which have been consulted about this proposal. None.