Kathleen Bogart has seen progress on disability inclusion — and has helped to lead it.

Story by Molly Rosbach

When Kathleen Bogart started graduate school in 2006, she couldn’t find a single expert with whom to study the social psychology of disability.  

Bogart cobbled together a group of allies and mentors, but she had to complete her master’s and doctorate with few professors or peers who shared her research focus and life experience.  

Nearly 20 years later, Bogart is now a preeminent scholar in the field. She has worked hard to create the community she needed as a student while advocating for disabled students to receive the access and accommodations they are legally entitled to.  

“There has been a real shift in the years since I started this work,” says Bogart, a professor in Oregon State’s School of Psychological Science and director of the Disability and Social Interaction Lab, where most student researchers are also disabled. “Back in the 2000s, diversity was starting to become a value that many universities held, but disability wasn’t included until the late 2010s, really.” That lack of inclusion was despite the fact that, according to the census, more than 25% of U.S. adults have a disability.  

Bogart defines disability as the intersection between an impairment or health condition and the social environment. This definition differs from how it’s often framed by legislation, which focuses on the medical aspect and minimizes the responsibility of policymakers and society to make spaces more accessible, she says. Only in the last few years have people become more aware of ableism, which is discrimination, prejudice, stereotyping and social oppression against disabled people.  

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Since she arrived at OSU in 2012, Bogart has been researching the impact of ableism from the perspective of people with disabilities. She also created an upper-division class, “Psychology of Disability,” that delves into disability as a social identity and is now part of a three-course “Autism and Neurodiversity” microcredential offered through SPS. The department is working to build a disability psychology minor.  

While developing the disability-psychology course, Bogart ran a study that found only 6% of the top 100 undergraduate institutions in the U.S. with psychology departments offered something similar. 

Her class helps students find themselves and their voice.  

“It tends to attract students who have disabilities or who may be curious about their identities, and it’s really neat to see over the course of that class how much people tend to open up and support each other, and how many ‘come out’ as disabled,” Bogart says. “I always get at least one comment — usually several — at the end of the class that the students recognized their rights and, for the first time, went through the process at Disability Access Services to get their legally entitled rights to access here at OSU.”  

Bogart’s advocacy and outreach extends far beyond the classroom. She is the faculty adviser for the Disabled Students Union at OSU, and since 2020, has been writing the “Disability is Diversity” blog for Psychology Today. In 2021, she co-founded DARN, the Disability Advocacy and Research Network, where disabled psychologists from any discipline and stage in their careers can connect.  

In recognition of her research and advocacy, Bogart was honored for “Distinguished Contributions to the Advancement of Disability Issues in Psychology” at the American Psychological Association’s annual conference in August 2024.  

At that conference, APA partnered with DARN to hold its first disability networking event. With more than 40 people attending, they had “more disabled psychologists than I’ve ever seen in one space before, at least in person,” Bogart says.  

“We have more than 500 people in our group now. When I was an undergrad, I never thought that would be an option. I can see the next generation is getting more opportunities to connect.”  

Bogart says those connections are crucial, not only for practical support like sharing resources for navigating disability-related challenges, but for shared identity and community, which help build a sense of belonging.  

She adds that building those connections and opportunities for advocacy is more important now than ever, as budget cuts target research grants as well as health and social services agencies.  

“All of the progress for the disability community is at risk if funding for disability research and services is cut or if the Americans with Disabilities Act is weakened.”