Council on Disability and Persons With Disabilities
The Council on Disability and Persons With Disabilities (CDPD) is a council of the Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice. The council functions to develop social work education resources that are related to issues surrounding disability and the experiences of individuals with disabilities. The council also works to facilitate the full participation of people with disabilities in social work education and is ready to assist in all endeavors related to issues of disability within this field. Finally, the council advocates to include social, political, and economic matters involving disability and individuals with disabilities in the framework of social work education.
Disability Manuscript Award
The award recognizes scholarship that contributes to knowledge about disability; full participation of persons with disabilities; social, political, and economic issues related to disability and persons with disabilities; and social work education curriculum materials focused on disability and persons with disabilities. Disability Manuscript Award winner(s) will be recognized at the Annual Program Meeting.
Learn more about the Disability Manuscript Award, including a video from 2021 award winners.
The 2021 award cycle is closed.
Disability Resources
Curricular Resource
The Curricular Resource on Issues of Disability and Disability-Competent Care provides a foundation for integrating disability content into social work courses. It outlines how content on disability aligns with each of the nine 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards social work competencies and provides specific classroom resources for social work educators.
Disability Courses in Social Work Education
CDPD member Lydia Ogden is the lead author of a paper that examines the availability of disability courses in social work programs and provides suggestions on how more disability content can be included in the curriculum. See reference below:
Ogden, L. P., McAllister, C., & Neely-Barnes, S. (2017). Assessment of integration of disability content into social work education. Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, 16, 361–376.