This seminar course reimagines and redefines our understanding and framing of disability. We learn about the history of the disability rights movement in America while also examining the culture, historical events, and designed objects or environments that shaped the landscape of disability-informed design movements such as Accessible Design, Inclusive Design, Universal Design, Human Centered Design, and Adaptive Fashion. While disabled people have always pioneered the design and innovation of new technologies and products to survive and thrive, they are yet to be seen as experts in the fields of art and design. We will understand the different models of disability through different historical movements and learn about the complexities of Disability as an identity category. We will also unpack the meaning of and our relationship with the term “Access.” Through an understanding of the Disability Justice Movement, we will uncover the rights of disabled populations – also the rights of humanity. Finally, we will learn about different scholarly frameworks of understanding disability and the barriers that confront the disability community such as ableism, euphemisms in culture, and a lack of representation of those who are multiply marginalized within the disability community and beyond. This course will enable students to understand disability history and scholarly frameworks of understanding discourses within the disability community. It will also allow students to make more informed choices of language and to form relationships with the disability community to be able to engage authentically within their practices.