Disability Services and Disability Studies in Higher Education ― History, Contexts, and Social Impacts

Disability Services and Disability Studies in Higher Education considers how the two fields of disability studies and disability services in institutions of higher education impact each other. Disability Studies is centered in the classroom, an interdisciplinary field that teaches about the social contexts of disability, while Disability Services works outside the classroom, making sure students with disabilities are able to access classroom spaces and educational material. Oslund explores the effect of the services on the larger societies in which they are located, students who encounter the respective fields, and those who self-identify as disabled or have an identity of disability posited on them by the society in which they live.

Christy Oslund is Coordinator of Student Disability Services at Michigan Technical University, USA. She holds degrees in science, philosophy, writing, and rhetoric, and is an ordained minister. Oslund has been involved in animal rescue work for 30 years, and has taught in the classroom for 15 years. She is interested in animal therapy, social justice, flower gardening, and ethics.