Progressive Final (20 points)
The purpose of this assignment is to help you research, digest, and pull together information from this course. Because this assignment refers to material from the entire course, you will be able to
answer more of the essay questions over time. As such, you should form your own,
personally-meaningful answers to these questions based on the literature. They should reflect your understanding of the literature, as well as your informed personal opinion on the relevant issues.
Every answer should have multiple in-text citations included from different readings. At least 15
different credible, scholarly references should be cited somewhere in your assignment (15 per
assignment, not 15 per essay question). I strongly encourage you to use outside resources, such as recommended readings, along with the required readings. However, the answers should not only be a summary of the readings — the purpose of this assignment is for you to integrate the material
from the readings into your own understanding of this subject.
Each question represents a stand-alone short essay. Please include the numbered question at the
start of each of your answers.
Essay Questions:
1) Define “the social construction disability” and compare with at least one other perspective on
disability.
2) Discuss how social characteristics, such as SES, ethnicity, gender, age, etc., interactively
contribute to an individual’s status as able/disabled. Provide relevant examples to clarify your
discussion.
3) Identify and discuss at least three examples of how social institutions/systems can create or
exacerbate disabilities.
4) Discuss, with pertinent examples, how media portrayals of individuals with disabilities contribute to the social construction of disability.
5) Discuss how actions on the part of individuals can function to reconfirm or defy common notions of ability/disability, with reference to your own behavior and actions.
