The Certificate of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies in Public Health (Disability Certificate) is a graduate education offering developed and supported by the UConn Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service.

The 12-credit, 4-course program is entirely online. It uses the 10 Essential Public Health Services as a framework to study the health and well-being of people with disabilities and their families, as well as the communities in which they live, learn, work, and play, and the populations of which they are a part.

The Certificate is comprised of 4 courses:

  • Foundations
  • Epidemiology
  • Law
  • Public Health Interventions

This Certificate was originally designed in collaboration with UConn's eCampus within the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, and is part UConn's graduate program in Applied Public Health Sciences.

Why this Certificate?

The Certificate is designed to be a freestanding Certificate whose targeted audience, in addition to public health students, consists of individuals in the professional and paraprofessional workforce in medicine, dentistry, nursing, social work, law, education, psychology, political science, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech/language/hearing sciences, and other fields related to public health and disability.

Certificate highlights

  • A chapter on preparing a disability-competent workforce in the 2021 edition of the textbook, Public Health Perspectives on Disability: Science, Social Justice, Ethics, and Beyond, includes the Certificate as a highlighted strategy to add disability content to public health and healthcare education standards
  • A 2020 publication in the American Journal of Public Health identifies Certificate course titles as specific examples of the limited inclusion of disability in MPH curricula
  • A 2015 publication  in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice highlights the Certificate as a potential resource for other Schools and Programs of Public Health to develop disability-specific courses

Certificate outcomes

  • A 2024 publication by a Certificate student and Certificate leadership in Women's Health Issues describing a research and care agenda for breast and ovarian cancer among women with IDD
  • A 2020 publication by a Certificate student and Certificate leadership in Infants & Young Children discussing policy and practice of early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) within the medical home
  • A 2019 publication by Certificate leadership in the Review of Disability Studies investigating outcomes in education and employment of those who took at least one Certificate course

Applications received by July 10 are considered for matriculation during the following fall semester and by November 10 for matriculation during the following spring semester.