Disability & Design Institute

Program Overview 

Made possible by a grant from the Provost’s Investment Fund, the Disability & Design Institute seeks to expand and reframe thinking about disability by focusing on dynamics of community, culture, power, and privilege, with an emphasis on the important role design plays in access and inclusion.  

Disability is a sociopolitical construction and, to think about it as such, in our meetings we critically analyze how language, design, media, and policy shape the way disability is conceptualized in society and operationalized in post-secondary education. Central to the Institute is an exploration of ableism and the many ways ableism is institutionalized in higher education.  

Meetings provide opportunities for cohort members to more authentically understand the disability experience and the impact of design choices by incorporating narratives, guest speakers, and media to add a richer and more personal element to discussions.  

The cohort meets monthly from October through May. We begin with a focus on disability dynamics and then create opportunity for participants to apply universal design to a particular area of their practice (i.e., curricular design, event planning). The Institute will culminate in a Universal Design Symposium for campus in which participants will showcase their projects. At each meeting, participants will be encouraged to share current events or questions related to disability or accessibility for group discussion.