This microcredential is designed for professionals across the education, human services, mental health, and healthcare sectors who are interested in enhancing inclusivity and promoting neurodiversity- and disability-affirmative practices for their students, clients, patients, or colleagues. Students will gain an understanding of:
- Disability
- Types of disabilities, with emphasis placed on ADHD and autism
- The disability rights movement
- Disabilityrelated legislation.
Emphasis is placed on disability as a form of natural and valuable human diversity and society’s role in constructing barriers for people with disabilities through its emphasis on the medicalization of disability. This sequence succinctly balances the foundational knowledge needed to:
- Conceptualize disability,
- Analyze the role of society and the environment on the experience of being a disabled person
- Identify unintentional barriers to access and inclusion within practice and systems
- Prevent and address barriers for inclusivity
Program alumni will have the knowledge and skills necessary to apply neurodiversity-affirming frameworks to promote trauma-, sensory-, and communication-inclusive approaches that affirm the identities and experiences of Neurodivergent individuals across the age span and contexts and to advocate for systems changes.
The required courses and suggested sequence are as follows:
Course List | Code | Title | Credits |
| APPL 6045 | Diversity, Neurodiversity & Affirming Approaches | 3 |
| APPL 6050 | Disability, Neurodiversity, & Universal Design | 3 |
Upon successful completion of this program, students should be able to:
- Explain and differentiate foundational concepts related to disability and neurodiversity including the social and medical models of disability, disability as diversity, and universal design.
- Summarize key events in the disability rights movement and federal laws protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities.
- Evaluate ableism within policies, practices, and systems.
- Apply neurodiversity-affirming frameworks to promote trauma-, sensory-, and communication-inclusive approaches that affirm the identities and experiences of Neurodivergent individuals across the age span and contexts.
