ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how disability is framed in higher education, explores disability as a sociopolitical category, shares strategies to reframe disability on college campuses, and considers disability-related access an institutional responsibility rather than a special need. Related to the medical model, is the tragedy or charity model, which holds that because of their physiological difference, disabled people are in need of help, pity, or prayer. In higher education, there are few models that challenge dominant thinking on disability. Shakespeare describes new thinking on disability through a social model that distinguishes impairment from disability and responds to access systemically through design rather than individual interventions. Universal Design (UD) presents strategies to operationalize social model thinking about disability. Diversity in higher education is an ever-important issue. Campus disability services (DS) offices or resource centers are designated by an institution to monitor Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and determine reasonable accommodations.
