Disability has historically been understood as an outcome or target of prevention within public health. However, many health researchers and federal agencies today discuss health and healthcare disparities impacting people with disabilities as a population. How did this transformation occur within U.S. public health and science policy? And what are its consequences?
My current research explores this question using qualitative interviews with expert informants and archival analysis. I am interested in how researchers, advocates, and other stakeholders have navigated the complexities associated with producing knowledge about disability and health. For example, collecting data on health disparities among disabled people involves nuanced decisions about how to conceptualize, define, and categorize disability. The formation of a disability health field has raised new questions about what it means to be healthy. And, stakeholders across institutions have grappled with the relationship between disability and multiple forms of inequality, sometimes in diverging ways.
In this project, I hope to illuminate the social processes that contribute to changing scientific ideas about population categories, disability, and health. Please reach out to me if you’d like to learn more!
This study is advised by Dr. Eliza Brown at UC Berkeley and approved by the UC Berkeley Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (#2026-04-19580).
Maddie Kerr 