Breanna Reeves
Students enrolling at the California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) this spring, for the first time will be able to declare a minor in Disability Studies. Class registration begins April 28.
CSUSB joins San Francisco State University (SFSU) and California State University, Northridge (CSUN) as the third CSU to offer the minor. SFSU launched the Disability Studies minor in 2023, followed by CSUN who began offering the minor in 2024.
At CSUSB, the Disability Studies minor requires a minimum of 18 units to be completed and includes a range of courses designed to engage studies in exploring the history, experiences and cultures of people with disabilities. Courses include “Philosophy of Disability” and “Stereotyping, Prejudice and Discrimination.” Additionally, students can enroll in internships, practicums and service learning electives that allow them to apply their knowledge of disability identity and rights to other fields such as criminal justice and public health.
The minor was created by CSUSB faculty Jonathan L. Hall, Tiffany F. Jones, Jessica Luck, Jeremy Murray, and Jess Nerren, all of whom have PhD’s in their respective fields of study. Each facility member brings a different field of study to the table including History, Communications and English.
One of the core models in Disability Studies is the social model which recognizes systemic and social barriers that exclude and discriminate against people with disabilities.
“Sometimes the disability also lives outside the body, in the systems and institutions that make up our communities and our world,” Dr. Nerren explained.
As an example, Dr. Nerren shared that her son is autistic and currently attending college. In his classes, one of the ways he is going to be evaluated is based on his eye contact with the instructor. For many adults and children who identify as autistic, the act of making eye contact can be very stressful, according to Autism Speaks, an autism awareness nonprofit organization.
“Faculty are looking for engagement…and that’s really honorable and really noble, but unfortunately, there’s just these baked in internalized biases that come from that history of oppression that affects so many people based on race, ethnicity, class, various aspects of their appearance [and disability],” Dr. Nerren explained.
In Riverside and San Bernardino County, approximately 11.4% of people live with a disability, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) five-year data.
CSUSB’s Disability Studies minor description notes that the minor can prepare students who go on to work in any field where they may serve people with disabilities, “but more importantly, it encourages all students to celebrate disabled joy, creation, and community while promoting social justice for people with disabilities.”
Part of the coursework includes “Disability History” and educating students about the disability rights movements and activists like Brad Lomax, a Civil Rights leader, founder of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and disability rights activist. As a teenager, Lomax was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, autoimmune disease that can impact mobility.
In 1977, Lomax joined other disability rights activists and staged a sit-in in San Francisco’s federal office building to demand the government implement Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act which protects disabled individuals from discrimination in federally funded programs and guarantees the right to equal access to services, benefits and employment with reasonable accommodation.
In 2022, more than four million Californians over the age of 16 reported having some type of disability (roughly 10% of the population), according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). Many people with disabilities experience barriers to equitable health care, employment and basic rights. Others face challenges with having their disabilities acknowledged or taken seriously.
PPIC research noted that Californians have reported more cognitive disabilities over the past few years. The Institute gathered policy experts and advocates who provided insights on the challenges adults with disabilities in California face in the workforce. One insight recommended the need for more work-based learning, apprenticeships and internships, “especially for young people with disabilities, on-the-job training can support the transition from education to the workforce.”
With the addition of Disability Studies as a minor, this is an opportunity for everyone to “uplift disabled voices and uplift disability studies as an important field of study,” Dr. Nerren said. “Because it’s not studying on disabled people, and it’s not studying disability as a deficit, it’s studying and uplifting disabled voices and disabled perspectives and disabled history and the rich lived experience and culture within various aspects of the disability community, which is incredibly varied.”
With more than 17,000 students enrolled at CSUSB now able to access Disability Studies as a minor, expanding the knowledge of disability studies could have a significant impact on decreasing the barriers people with disabilities encounter.