Course Title: Lifespan Opportunities for People with a Disability

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Lifespan Opportunities for People with a Disability

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
HWSS2086	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	150H Health Sciences	Distance / Correspondence or Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2006, Sem 2 2007, Sem 2 2008, Sem 2 2009, Sem 2 2010
HWSS2086	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	150H Health Sciences	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2011, Sem 2 2012, Sem 1 2013, Sem 2 2013
HWSS2086	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	360H Education	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2014

Course Coordinator: Dr Phil Doecke

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7864

Course Coordinator Email: phil.doecke@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 220.03.01

Course Coordinator Availability: Please e-mail with several suggested times

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Students undertaking this course may also be contacted via student services as part of the RMIT Student Success Project

Course Description

This course examines different explanations of ’disability’ as it affects people across the lifespan. This allows participants to explore key disability issues from the beginning of life until its end. Students will look at the way in which people with disabilities are excluded from full participation in society and how we can confront disabling barriers and practices. This includes key areas of social life, including education, family life, access to goods and services, such as transport and housing. Topics are analysed at different levels, for instance, organisational responses to service delivery, through to our own thoughts and behaviour.

As people with disabilities move through the life span there is a tendency for service provision to be fragmented. The course is intended to equip graduates with the knowledge to identify disabling barriers and attitudes, so that they might be better able to support disabled people to determine their own goals and access the formal and informal supports, which meet them.

The course explores the way in which transitions throughout the lifespan are organised and managed and focuses on the significance of disability issues as they impact on people at different ages. The lectures are presented in a chronological sequence, which follows the life course.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

At the completion of this course students should be able to:

• Explain why and how people with disabilities are excluded from full social participation across the lifespan.
• Discuss strategies that confront disabling barriers and practices.
   

Overview of Learning Activities

In lectures, students acquire a framework of relevant knowledge and an understanding of underlying theoretical / conceptual material.

Through participation in class discussions, students develop effective communication skills and expose themselves to the experience of public speaking.

Students will gain knowledge through joint exploration of the course material. By working together on classroom exercises students will learn to work collaboratively. Students will analyse case studies that will require application of theoretical and conceptual knowledge to hypothetical situations.

Students will acquire a deeper and broader understanding of the course material through independent reading.

Overview of Learning Resources

The students will be able to access course information and learning materials through myRMIT and will be provided with reading lists or other sources of information. Students will also use the library resources and University computer facilities.

Overview of Assessment

There are three pieces of assessment for this unit

Assessment One: Multiple Choice Exam/Test (100 questions in total)
Students will be expected to participate in class review of the multiple choice exams/tests. There will be five of these across the semester in weeks 2 ,4, 8, 10 and 12
This assessment is worth 40% of your course mark

Assessment Two: Class presentation. In groups of no more than 4, interview a parent of a child with disability. This assessment is worth 20% of your course mark

It is expected that students will participate in the group presentations that occur in weeks five and six. However, all students will be expected to be ready to present week 5

Assessment Three: Communities of Practice: Student will be required to be active members of a community of practice (CoP), this includes being involved and attending the Community of Practice meetings. This CoP will focus on developing a learning resource for a particular disability or health related condition and explore the impact of this across the lifespan. Student will also be expected to present this resource to the larger student group.