My focus on multicultural rehabilitation and acceptance of disability arose from the former career as a college instructor of Spanish. I first started to learn Spanish while living in the Panama Canal Zone as a child; my father was in the U.S. Navy. My second focus was the result of trying to find a succinct and concise definition of disability to use in my first book, Disability, Society, and the Individual (2001). Of course, I always asked students about their definitions of disability, and I was surprised (and disappointed) how little these graduate students in Rehabilitation Counseling knew! Then, it dawned on me: It wasn't their fault! I had never read a thorough description/definition/discussion of the concept of disability. This, to me, seemed like the Emperor's Clothing. The most basic concept in rehabilitation IS disability and yet no one really knew what it was. I know I sound like a cranky mother, but I knew if you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself! So I did.

My next big question was What are models of disability? I asked professors, physicians, and psychologists and most answered: A model of disability is a paradigm. What's a paradigm? A model. So, I decided to research and write about models of disability and answer my own question.

Another emphasis on all my writing is practice recommendations. It seemed to me that much of the academic/professional literature thoroughly and perceptively described problems but gave no solutions or practice recommendations.

I have written four books: Disability, Society, and the Individual (now in its 4th edition); Disability across the Developmental Lifespan: For Rehabilitation Counselors; Disability across the Developmental Lifespan: For the Helping Professions, and Disability Diagnoses and Definitions: Practice Implications. (I should have titled this last book, simply Counseling Individuals with Disabilities.) Big mistake.

I have written and co-written many academic articles and chapters in textbook. However, as soon as I obtained Full Professor status, I switched focus and wrote books because books allowed me to develop my ideas more completely.

I think that university students in the behavioral sciences and the social sciences should complete a course on disability issues. Sociologists, social workers, counselors, and psychologists, at this point, are missing the opportunity to learn about 20% of the American population (Americans with disabilities) and even worse, they are unaware of this hole in their education.