[Image description: Table of disability rights T-shirts with slogans like “Label jars not people” and “Disabled and proud.” The T-shirts are part of a business run by a man with Down syndrome, Teddy’s Ts. Photo by Beth Haller, 2013.]

This online course will introduce advocates to how to use traditional and online media advocacy techniques to build awareness of disability issues. It will cover the use of social media, videos, websites and blogs for disability advocacy. It includes e-lectures, self-teaching assignments, and all-online readings and other resources.

This course is a collaborative project between the College of Fine Arts and Communication and the Hussman Center for Adults with Autism, both at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, USA. For more information about the Hussman Center, visit its website here.

This course is meant to be used and shared. We encourage disability advocates from around the world to translate it into other languages. If you have comments or ideas about the course, feel free to contact the creator of it, Beth Haller, at bah621@gmail.com.

The creator of the course:

Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Professor of Journalism/New Media and the Graduate Director of the Communication Management master’s program in the Department of Mass Communication & Communication Studies at Towson University in Maryland, where she has been a full-time faculty member since 1996. She is the author of Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media (Advocado Press, 2010). She is also the former co-editor of the Society for Disability Studies’ scholarly journal, Disability Studies Quarterly, (2003-2006). She is adjunct faculty for the City University of New York’s Disability Studies master’s program and for York University’s Critical Disability Studies graduate program in Toronto.