DHD 176: Disability in American Film
Why do academy awards always seem to go to films with actors portraying disabled people?  DHD 176 examines images of disability in popular and documentary film.  The course teaches critical and technical knowledge about film interpretation while exploring the representational history of disabled populations in the U.S. Through film one may study the history of disability in exploring storylines where individuals are actively directed to lead a life of excessive restriction. Fortunately, one also finds a history about those who band together in order to resist the discrimination that so often results when some are thought to be alien on the basis of physical, mental, or emotional differences.

DHD 401: Foundations of Disability and Human Development
This class surveys foundational concepts and issues in the field of disability. Students will develop a framework for understanding disability from a multi-disciplinary perspective with emphasis on its social and cultural context. The research programs and scholarship of DHD faculty will be reviewed and examined within this framework.

DHD 430: Introduction to Disability Policy and Organization
Legislative, legal, and administrative foundations for the provision of services to persons with disabilities in the U.S. Roles of residential institutions, the independent living movement, class action litigation and advocacy.

DHD 440: Introduction to Assistive Technology: Principles and Practice
An examination of best clinical practices and state-of-the-art Assistive Technology devices, including the areas of Augmentative Communication, Cognitive Technologies, Computer Access, Environmental Control, Home Modification, Orthotics and Prosthetics, Seating and Wheeled Mobility, and Worksite Modification. Funding and Outcomes Measurement with respect to each area also included.

DHD 441: Adaptive Equipment Design and Fabrication
Design theories, idea generation, fabrication machines, hand tool techniques, and appropriate materials are covered related to custom design and custom fabrication of low-tech adaptive equipment. Students work in the ATU shop during practice sessions, and in completing an individual project based on actual consumer request.

DHD 444: Assistive Technology for Literacy, Learning and Participation in Pre-K through High School
This course includes weekly hands-on lab experience along with lectures and group projects. The emphasis is on learning how to use a variety of assistive technology software and techniques that can be used to make academic curriculum available for all learners. Literacy and writing software are covered extensively. Assessment techniques for diverse learners are presented.

DHD 464: Survey of Developmental Disabilities
Same as Community Health Sciences 464.
Survey of the developmental disabilities field, including basic definitions, history of DD services, relevant public policies and legislation, service delivery systems, and research.

DHD 494: Special Topics in Disability and Human Development
May be repeated for credit. Students may register for more than one section per term. Systematic study of selected topics in disability and human development.

DHD 510: Concepts in Interdisciplinary Research on Disability
Same as Disability Studies 510.
The disablement process encompasses the entire range of human experience and must be studied using diverse forms of inquiry and research. The focus of this course is the development of a conceptual understanding of the major traditions of inquiry used in the study of disability. Included in the course is an overview of the basic issues of research and a general introduction to the primary methods for systematic inquiry within each of the traditions. The intent of the course is to provide a broadly based perspective on the research enterprise as well as a foundation for specialized courses on research methodology and techniques.

DHD 514: Ethical Issues in Disability
Examines contemporary ethical issues affecting the lives of persons with disabilities and disability professionals. Critiques the application of ethical principles to problems of genetics, treatment decisions, competency, etc.

DHD 515: Statistical Methods in Disability Studies
Same as Disability Studies 515.
This course will cover the elementary and intermediate quantitative techniques most commonly used in the social sciences. Emphasis is on the understanding of the underlying logic of quantitative research and statistical analysis of data. You will learn how to statistically address theoretical and practical questions related to disability issues, and to be able to critically evaluate statistical evidence. Application and interpretation is emphasized over mathematical calculations.

DHD 520: Disability and Physical Activity
Same as Movement Sciences 520.
An examination of the foundations of physical activity for persons with disabilities. Emphasis is on strategies for promoting physical activity among persons with disabilities within community settings.

DHD 525: Technology to Promote Physical Activity Among Persons with Disabilities
Applications of new and emerging technologies to promote participation in and adherence to healthful physical activity by people with disabilities. Considers ways of redesigning physical, social and attitudinal environments to achieve these outcomes.

DHD 526: Family Perspectives on Disability
Same as Community Health Sciences 526 and Disability Studies 526.
Societal trends, family caregiving theories and research methodology, support policies and interventions, and family-centered approaches pertaining to families of persons with disabilities.

DHD 535: Advocacy and Empowerment in Disability
Same as Disability Studies 535.
In-depth review of academic literature on advocacy and empowerment. Relevant theories, research, and interventions in the context of individuals with disabilities will be reviewed.

DHD 537: Disability and Health Promotion
Examines health issues in disability with emphasis on health promotion and preventing secondary disease. Relationship of emerging theories of health promotion to disability is discussed.

DHD 541: Advanced Concepts in Disability Research
Same as Disability Studies 541.
Seminar-based applications of advanced scholarship skills. Topics covered include problem formulation, manuscript development, and critical reviews.

DHD 545: Leadership in the Non-Profit Disability Organization
This class focuses on real-world applications in management and leadership in the non-profit disability agency. Foundational content is provided on employee motivation, recruitment, retention, fiscal management, long-range planning, board development and succession planning. The class focuses on self awareness of strengths and challenges as a leader in this industry. The final project culminates in a paper focusing on a disability services agency case study. 

DHD 546: Qualitative Methods in Disability Research
Same as Disability Studies 546.
Methods of qualitative research as used in disability research. Comparisons of qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, presentation of commonly used methods, issues of analysis and interpretation, and discussion of the use of participatory research methods.

DHD 547: Organizational Theory in the Non-Profit Sector
Don't let the word "theory" in the title scare you -- this course will blend organizational theory with real-life experiences in the non-profit disability sector. Students will learn core organizational theories, with a special emphasis on non-profit agencies serving people with disabilities. Differences between and for-profit and non-profit organizations are addressed, including budgeting and fiscal management. 

DHD 551: Computers, Communication & Controls in Rehabilitation Technology
Prerequisite: DHD 440.
Assistive technology course exploring different methods for evaluating controls used to operate computers, communication devices and powered wheelchairs. Instruction also addresses device features and integration factors.

DHD 552: Seated and Wheeled Mobility
Prerequisite: DHD 440
This course provides the student with detailed information on the issues of wheelchair seating, positioning and mobility for children and adults with physical disabilities. Emphasis is placed on evaluating for a consumer’s need and identifying the appropriate technology to match those needs. Course content includes in-depth information on assessment procedures and technology selection. The student will participate in significant hands-on experiences with the technology presented as a means to understand the capabilities and potential applications. Current research related to seating and wheeled mobility is included throughout the course. Funding sources and associated guidelines are also covered.

DHD 553: Program Evaluation: Documenting the Impact of Human Services
Same as Occupational Therapy 553.
This course is intended to provide students with a foundation of knowledge and skills on planning and designing an evaluation of a community/human service program. Students will gain basic understanding of evaluation methods, how program evaluation is used in program planning and implementation and will be exposed to a variety of case studies and illustrations from small scale to large scale evaluations. Students will also study different approaches to evaluation such as participatory and empowerment evaluation and will examine strategies to communicate evaluation results and increase its utility.

DHD 554: Augmentative Communication Assessment
Prerequisite: DHD 440
This course covers a range of augmentative communication assessment strategies and evaluation materials utilizing case examples for discussion of specific approaches for different ages, disabilities, and settings. Special topics include vocabulary selection, communication display design, features of electronic communication aids, funding speech-generating devices, strategies for beginning communicators and partners, vision issues and the relationship between behavior and communication for individuals with complex communication needs. Students work with a wide range of speech-generating devices to conduct feature analyses of systems and to gain hands-on experience using a variety of access methods, rate enhancement techniques and vocabulary expansion tools.

DHD 564: Community Integration in Developmental Disabilities
Same as Disability Studies 564 and Community Health Sciences 564.
Historical and contemporary issues pertaining to the empowerment and integration of persons with developmental disabilities into community settings.

DHD 565: Research Approaches in Rehabilitation Technology: Use and Delivery
Advanced course in the design and critical analysis of research on the delivery and long term use of rehabilitation technology and universal access modifications by people with disabilities within the home, school, worksite and community.

DHD 570: Disability and Culture
This course addresses the meaning of culture from a variety of angles. Specifically, we will begin by analyzing influential theories and definitions of culture with respect to the development of disability culture. What are its contours? Where and to what extent does it exist? What are its theoretical, political, disciplinary, and social origins? What limits does its current formulation engender? How does disability culture compare with other political movements and what do such formations share in common? In order to inform ourselves historically, we will consider these questions in relationship to the advent of ideologies of biological inferiority -- including racism, ablism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism. The seminar will conclude with a review of recent discussions of radical democracy and how social movements might develop without recourse to the exclusions often precipitated by essentialist definitions of identity.

DHD 572: A Representational History of Disability
Same as Disability Studies 572.
This seminar will trace the shifting historical terrain that has characterized representations of western disability.  As a phenomenon of bodily difference, disability has been socially marked, exalted, categorized, divided, and scapegoated.  In studying the discourses of disability we come to recognize the category’s amorphousness along with an almost infinite capacity for subdivision as one of its chief characteristics – one that is evidenced in its incorporation of precise detail and vagueness. Historically, disability is depicted as something to be judged, something to be disciplined, something to be illustrated.  Consequently, disabled persons are contained and represented by dominating frameworks. Yet, at the same time, as Foucault has pointed out, the exercise of power can only be understood within the context of resistance.  Consequently, we will also search for instances of cultural rebellion; moments when the structural oppression of disability was re-imagined by disabled persons and the advocates of heterogeneity as a potent counter-discursive strategy. 

DHD 575: History of Human Differences: Disability Minorities in America
Historical experiences of disability minorities during the modern era. Focus on American experiences and comparing them to premodern and contemporaneous experiences in Western European societies.

DHD 576: Visualizing the Body
Same as Disability Studies 576.
This course will examine key structural and representational issues in recent disability film by disabled filmmakers. While the course will cover some important aspects of film history and technique, it is primarily intended to develop analytical acumen with respect to the function of disability as a politicized image in visual media. By examining recent documentary and fictional efforts the course will seek to expose the prevalence of disability as an aspect of characterization, metaphor, and plot generation. Our efforts will also seek to identify critical (i.e. repeated and naturalized) narrative formulas bequeathed to the social construction of disability. The key objectives of the seminar, then, will entail efforts to understand how disability filmmakers have come to expose seemingly biologically determined properties interpreted as primarily detrimental to human organisms and communities. To study contemporary disability film efforts provides an opportunity to isolate the various social contexts and ideologies that make disability apparent as a process of embodiment grafted upon those marked as deviant.
DHD 590: Field Experience in Disability and Human Development
May be repeated for a maximum of 12 hours of credit. Opportunities for guided experience working with agencies, families, and persons with disabilities providing concrete, practical applications of concepts and principles of disability and human development.

DHD 593: Independent Research
May be repeated for credit. Students may register for more than one section per term. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade only. Advanced study and analysis of a topic selected by a student under the supervision of a faculty member.

DHD 594: Advanced Special Topics in Disability and Human Development
May be repeated for credit. Students may register for more than one section per term. Systematic study of advanced selected topics in disability and human development.

DHD 595: Seminar in Disability and Human Development
May be repeated for credit. Students may register for more than one section per term. Satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only. Identifies and analyzes a broad range of issues related to disability and human development. Topics vary according to student interests and instructor availability.

DHD 596: Independent Study
May be repeated for credit. Students may register for more than one section per term. Advanced study and analysis of a topic under guidance of a faculty member.

DHD 597: Project Research
May be repeated credit. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade only. Independent project to satisfy master's degree requirement.

DHD 598: Master's Thesis Research
May be repeated for credit. Satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only. Thesis research to fulfill master's degree requirements.