Knowledge, Tasks and Strategies for Teaching About Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

Persons with disabilities are a distinct and insular minority group within the United States. Given the fact that social workers offer critical social services to this group, it is important for social work programs to offer meaningful curriculum content on persons with disabilities. This article presents key issues that social work educators should find useful for teaching about persons with disabilities. Specifically, a discussion is offered on the disability civil rights movement, the culture of disability, models for defining disability, knowledge areas on disability issues, teaching tasks and strategies for focusing on persons with disabilities.

Key Words:

• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• teaching tasks
• moral model
• medical model
• minority model
• disability culture
• advocacy
• civil rights for persons with disabilities