Career Interests

Disability and mental health affect most of us directly or indirectly, through family, colleagues, or clients. The new Disability Rights legislation and policy changes mean that familiarity with this field is an increasingly valuable asset for various careers and good citizenship. For example, engineers, architects, city planners, urban designers, and transportation offices must now all take accessibility and equity into account in the design of the built environment; doctors, nurses, social workers and rehabilitation science professionals are being pushed by the disability community to look beyond ‘fixing bodies’ to take restrictive and unequal structures into account as well.   Social changes and structural challenges that increase the vocational relevance of this degree include: an aging population living longer but with more disabilities, veterans returning home with new health-related conditions, and a rise in diagnosis of learning disability and mental health conditions for children and youth and subsequent attention to supporting them well. This module sets students up well for work in any sector – academic, public/government, non-profit, or private industry.