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I presented a collaborative research project between the AV������ and the University of Connecticut’s (UCEDD) at the recent American Public Health Association Conference in Washington, D.C. The project was aimed at assessing a baseline understanding of student disability in our School of Health Sciences. This was conducted as part of the ’s workforce development initiatives.

AV������ was selected for this research because I teach the only full course examining disability that is offered in a public health program in Connecticut outside of UConn. I developed the course, Disability Across the Population (PUBH 3360/6678), and it has been running at the AV������ since 2021.

, assistant professor and training director, UConn UCEDD, and I spent two years planning this project, meeting requirements at both schools for research and partnership. The outcome of this collaboration includes the potential for future initiatives between the School of Health Sciences and the UConn UCEDD.

Presenting the results at a national conference in Washington, D.C. was an opportunity to highlight this collaboration and the study results to an audience of public health experts from across the country. The presentation, “What do future health sciences professionals know about disability? A baseline assessment,” showed that students want to have more course content providing information on understanding people with disabilities.

Perhaps the most illuminating part of the study was the open-ended questions allowing students to respond in their own words. Responses included statements such as “I just realized that I don’t even know what I don’t know about disabled people.”

Students across nine undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Health Sciences completed the survey for the assessment, indicating that both public health and clinical students are interested in additional course content on disability. They were asked questions on their knowledge about the health needs of people with disabilities, personal experience with people with disabilities, attitudes/comfort with people with disabilities, myths about people with disabilities, and understanding of disability in public health functions and activities.

I greatly appreciate the support of colleagues and students in this project. I also completed a qualitative assessment of the disability course. This echoed similar themes from the UCEDD study. This work indicates that students are excited to learn about disability, and they see the need to explore inclusion and access in their coursework. Having this baseline study provides evidence that disability content is important in public health and health science education, and places the AV������ in an important position to advance training in this field.

Next steps in this collaboration include working with Dr. Lutz to develop possible modules to include in coursework here at the AV������ and at other universities, with the goal of supporting more learning on the topics of disability and public health.