Public Health Perspectives on Disability

Donald J. Lollar, EdD, is Professor Emeritus of Public Health at the School of Public Health of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA. Dr. Lollar was the Associate Director for Research and Academic Affairs in the OHSU Institute on Development and Disability and directed the OHSU University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.  Prior to his OHSU tenure, he was a Senior Health Scientist in the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. During his 15-year association with CDC, Dr. Lollar directed the Office on Disability and Health at NCEH and NCBDDD Office of Extramural Research. He has written extensively in the area of public health and disability, emphasizing the need for disability to be an integral part of public health education and training, culminating in the inclusion of people with disabilities in public health science, policy, and programs. He has published in Public Health Reports, the Annual Review of Public Health, the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, and Rehabilitation Psychology. He was a practicing psychologist for 25 years before coming to CDC.  Dr. Lollar received his MS and EdD degrees in Rehabilitation Counseling from Indiana University. Willi Horner-Johnson, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the collaborative Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Portland State University School of Public Health and in OHSU’s Institute on Development and Disability in Portland, Oregon, USA. Dr. Horner-Johnson received her graduate training in community psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she studied attitudes toward community inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities and co-authored a curriculum on recognizing and addressing abuse and maltreatment of people with disabilities. Since joining OHSU in 2001, her research has focused on disparities in health and access to health care as they impact youth and adults with disabilities. She has particular interests in reproductive health of women with disabilities, intersectionality of disability with other marginalized identities, and measurement of health-related quality of life in the context of disability. She directs the Oregon Office on Disability and Health, a CDC-funded project to monitor and promote the health of individuals with disabilities in Oregon. She is active in disability-related professional organizations nationally and internationally, and is a Past-Chair of the Disability Section of the American Public Health Association. Katherine Froehlich-Grobe, PhD, is Acting Director of Research at Baylor Scott and White Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas, Texas, USA, where she has been since 2016, having spent 16 years in academia at the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of Kansas, and the University of Texas School of Public Health, where she maintains an adjunct faculty appointment and continues teaching a course on Disability and Public Health. Dr. Froehlich-Grobe received her graduate training in behavioral psychology and has spent her professional career conducting research to enhance access to and engagement in health behaviors for community-dwelling individuals who live with disabilities. Her research program has focused on developing and testing evidence- and theory-based strategies to promote behavior change around dietary intake and physical activity for individuals with physical disabilities with support from the NIH, CDC, NIDILRR, and private foundations. Dr. Froehlich-Grobe's research has explored social determinants of health, specifically perceived and environmental barriers to exercise that people with disabilities face. She has conducted several interventionstudies that target reducing exercise barriers that wheelchair users encounter including lack of available and affordable transportation and accessible equipment combined with teaching behavioral self-management strategies to initiate an exercise program.  

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Epidemiology and Biostatistics.- Chapter 3. Social Determinants of Health and Disability.- Chapter 4. Disability, Intersectionality, and Inequity: Life in the Margins.- Chapter 5. Environmental Contexts Shaping Disability and Health.- Chapter 6. Public Health Ethics and Disability: Centering Disability Justice .- Chapter 7. International Public Health and Global Disability.- Chapter 8. Disability and Health Programs: Emerging Partners.- Chapter 9. Children with Special Healthcare Needs.- Chapter 10. Achieving Equity: Including Women with Disabilities in Maternal and Child Health Policies and Programs.- Chapter 11. Aging with a Disability.- Chapter 12. Disasters and Disability: Rhetoric and Reality.- Chapter 13. Law, Benefits, Disability Rights, and Public Health: A Sum Greater than the Parts?- Chapter 14. Inter-relationship of Health Insurance and Employment for People with Disabilities.- Chapter 15. Public Health, Work, and Disability.- Chapter 16. Actions to Prepare a Competent Workforce.