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P6726  Public health and disability policy

A social movement is redefining disability issues in terms of environmental barriers and civil rights; it rejects the "medical model" that accounts for limitations experienced by people with disabilities in terms of their impairments only. Federal legislation reflects both old and new perspectives, creating a generally incoherent "national disability policy." Public health professionals and their institutions have begun to respond to disability activism and to undertake major initiatives—notably, a new chapter on "Healthy People with Disabilities" in Healthy People 2010, the document that conveys U.S. public health priorities. This course examines the dilemmas of national disability policy. Highlights include the chapter noted above; the World Health Organization's new International Classification of Functioning and Disability; the "Americans with Disabilities Act"; recent legislation on disability, work, and health insurance; and research resources, e.g., National Health Interview Survey on Disability.

3 points