Listen. Learn.

Rethink Disability in Genetic Counseling

This education course centers the voices of individuals with disabilities and their families in order to expand how we understand and practice genetic counseling.

Take the Course

Reimagining Disability Education in
Genetic Counseling

Genetic counseling has traditionally focused on the medical aspects of disability—but patients and families live far beyond the diagnosis.

Many counselors report feeling less prepared to navigate the social, emotional, and day-to-day realities their patients experience. This gap can impact communication, trust, and care.

This course was designed to help bridge that gap.

  • Learn to define terms, apply, and communicate appropriately when it comes to working with individuals who identify with having a disability.

  • Understand the history, activism, and policy changes that have shaped disability justice, while recognizing the ongoing fight for equity, inclusion, and human rights for people with disabilities.

  • Explore the different frameworks of disability and how societal attitudes, environments, and daily life experiences shape the well-being, identity, and inclusion of people with disabilities.

  • Deepen your understanding of disability through first-person perspectives, fostering empathy, respect, and more person-centered, informed approaches to care and advocacy.

  • Recognize and thoughtfully navigate complex family dynamics in genetic counseling encounters by applying disability-informed, culturally humble communication strategies that center the perspectives of individuals with disabilities while supporting families with differing beliefs, emotions, and decision-making styles.

  • Integrate disability-informed perspectives into every stage of the genetic counseling process including case preparation, contracting, history-taking, patient education, and psychosocial support, to foster more inclusive and responsive care for individuals with disabilities.

What You’ll Gain

Deeper Understanding

Explore disability through lived experience, not just clinical definitions

Practical Communication Skills

Learn language and approaches for more inclusive counseling

Bias Awareness

Identify and challenge assumptions in clinical care

Patient-Centered Practice

Support autonomy, dignity, and shared decision-making

  • About the Course

    This educational tool was developed by Lucy Holland, a genetic counseling graduate student, in collaboration with a Community Advisory Board of individuals with lived disability experience and genetic counselors.

    Together, this work reflects a shared commitment to more inclusive, equitable care in genetic counseling.