ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the assumptions of able-bodiedness in a typical health communication course, as well as the pedagogical potential of de-centering able-bodiedness. Health communication continues to grow as an academic discipline finding space in undergraduate and graduate programs in communication studies, disability studies, public health and medical schools. The assumption about able-bodied health runs through the standard health communication texts – in terms of defining health as an absence of disease, a condition that is altered by diagnosis and further complicated through interactions with the healthcare system. Cultural competence for disability within health care services includes knowing how to approach a patient, how to support them physically within an examination and how to communicate directly with the patient. Student health issues are a key concern of an undergraduate health communication course in which students are often asked to present a final project about an on-campus health concern.
