Scholars from around the Northwest and the nation gathered at the UO recently to explore the growing field of disability studies, part of an effort that could ultimately help establish a formal program at the university.

“I am proud to call myself a disability studies scholar,” said UO English professor Elizabeth Wheeler, one of the organizers of the Disabilities Studies Forum. The event was tied to the UO’s Disability Studies Initiative, an effort to build a program that includes an undergraduate minor and graduate certificate in the subject.

The field encompasses a varied and nuanced realm of study. Work being done at the UO includes research on computer games and online avatars as a way for disabled people to engage with the abled world, architectural designs that begin with access in mind and designing products specifically to help disabled people better compete in sports and other activities.

Those are some of the projects described by UO faculty members in a panel discussion that was part of the forum. Donna Davis, a UO journalism professor, discussed her research on how disabled people use the virtual world to express the person they are inside, not what other people see.

“They’re finding a way back to themselves through the virtual world,” she said.

Saying her current dream is for a disability studies minor, Wheeler described a program built on three principles: A deep engagement with the disabled community both on and off campus, recognition of the ways disability intersects with race, class and gender and an understanding of the ways disability speaks to many areas of human experience and endeavor.

“Then we could send our graduates out into the world … with a better understanding of disability and social justice,” she said.

The forum, which took place Oct. 30, also included a keynote address by professor Rosemarie Garland-Thomson of Emory University, one of the leaders in disabilities studies. More information about the UO initiative is available here. It is led by the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.

—By Greg Bolt, Public Affairs Communications