Topics in American History: Ability & Disability

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

MAC Written Communication SLOs

• Analyze written texts to understand how they relate to particular audiences, purposes, and contexts as a way to inform one’s own writing and/or revision.
• Create and revise written texts for particular audiences, purposes, and contexts.
• Through oral or written reflection, demonstrate awareness of one’s writing choices as well as how one’s own writing contributes to ongoing conversations.

Course Specific SLOs

• Explain disability as a historical category shaped by changing ideas about normalcy, medicine, law, labor, race, gender, sexuality, class, citizenship, and public space.
• Analyze how language has shaped the history of disability, including how terms such as normal, abnormal, defective, feebleminded, insane, mad, crippled, disabled, Deaf, dependent, cure, and access have been used, rejected, reclaimed, or contested over time.
• Interpret visual and material sources as historical evidence, including photographs, posters, postcards, clinical images, advertisements, objects, assistive devices, monuments, and popular culture images.
• Connect course readings to broader historical questions about power, access, representation, bodily autonomy, citizenship, labor, public memory, and resistance.
• Develop evidence-based historical arguments using assigned readings, primary sources, visual sources, material culture, and clear citation practices.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Weekly 3-2-1 Reading Posts	30%
Disability Language Analysis	30%
Visual or Material Cultural Analysis	30%
Final Written Reflection	10%

Grading Scale:

Percentage	Letter Grade
93-100	A
90-92	A-
87-89	B+
83-86	B
80-82	B-
77-79	C+
73-76	C
70-72	C-
67-69	D+
63-66	D
60-62	D-
< 60	F

Attendance/Participation:

This is a fully online, asynchronous course, so there are no scheduled class meetings to attend. Instead, attendance is measured through active participation and timely completion of coursework.

You are expected to:

Log into Canvas regularly (at least 2–3 times per week).

Review weekly course materials, including readings, lectures, videos, and announcements.

Complete assignments, quizzes, discussions, and other required work by the posted deadlines.

Because this course is asynchronous, you are responsible for managing your own schedule and staying current with course content. Falling behind for multiple weeks can make it difficult to successfully complete the course.

If you experience illness, family emergencies, military service, religious observances, university-sponsored activities, or other circumstances that affect your ability to participate, please contact me as soon as possible. I am happy to work with students who communicate proactively about unexpected situations.

Please note that simply logging into Canvas does not constitute attendance. Attendance is demonstrated through meaningful engagement with course activities and the submission of assigned work.

Students who stop participating for an extended period without communication may be reported according to university policies regarding non-attendance or administrative withdrawal.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

No course materials are required.