Education

The Disability Ethics Scholars Program:

The Disability Ethics Scholars Program provides training in disability ethics for staff members throughout the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) System of Care, as well as health care practitioners and those associated with health care from the broader community. Each year, applications are accepted in February and March for this 11-month program that includes a weekly tutorial run by program staff with guest faculty from the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Scholars declare a focus project and receive guidance and mentoring from the program's associate director. Upon graduation, scholars are expected to bring a heightened sense of awareness concerning ethical issues to their respective health care settings.

Ethics Scholars Program Information and Application Materials

If you are interested in receiving more information about the Disability Ethics Scholars Program, please send an e-mail message to Carmen Cicchetti at ccicchetti@ric.org or call him at 312-238-1119.

The RIC/UIC Certificate Program in Disability Ethics:

The Disability Ethics Certificate Program addresses traditional bioethics frameworks within the context of disability studies, critiquing and expanding current approaches in ethics practice, research and conceptual analysis. The institutions jointly offering this program—UIC’s Department of Human Development (DHD) and RIC—have international reputations in their respective areas. Program faculty and instructors include scholars from DHD and RIC, local medical ethics and humanities experts and representatives from the local disability community.

For more information, contact:
Dr. Carol Gill
Department of Disability and Human Development
University of Illinois at Chicago
1640 West Roosevelt Road (MC 626)
Room 236
Chicago, IL 60608
Phone: 312-355-0550
TTY: 312-996-1233
Fax: 312-996-0885
cg16@uic.edu

WHO SHOULD APPLY

Professionals who would typically benefit from this certificate program include allied health providers, nurses, physicians, social workers, counselors, chaplains and students of public policy and disability studies. The certificate prepares individuals to be thoughtful about issues of disability ethics and to be good resources within their work environment.

CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS

Courses in the certificate program are part of the regularly scheduled curriculum of DHD. The required coursework consists of four, three-credit-hour DHD courses taken sequentially over four semesters, beginning in the fall:

• DHD 401- Foundations of Disability (or an equivalent overview course)
• Disability Ethics I (currently in place as DHD 514 - Ethical Issues in Disability)
• Disability Ethics II (DHD 517 - Ethics and Disability: Contemporary Problems)
• Elective – e.g., a qualitative research course (DHD 546 - Qualitative Methods in Disability Research), an independent study, or an elective chosen in concert with the student’s certificate advisor

Disability Ethics Certificate Program (opens new window)