Thank you for joining WWU Institute for Critical Disability Studies (ICDS) for our 4th year of Give Day!
Our theme this year is direct student aid.
Help us make a difference for our students this year.
Three ICDS Funds you can support:
- General Scholarship Fund
- Special Events Fund
- Institute for Critical Disability Studies Fund
Double your gift with the ICDS Scholarship Challenge!
It's back! For Give Day 2026, our Give Day ICDS Scholarship Challenge is being generously sponsored by an anonymous donor. For every $100 donated to any ICDS fund on Give Day, our donor has committed to contribute $100 toward the ICDS General Scholarship Fund, up to $600!
How does your gift support us?
Giving to the ICDS General Scholarship Fund provides direct aid to students in the program!
Previously, your generous Give Day contributions helped us to award two scholarships for Minors in Critical Disability Studies through our General Scholarship Fund.
This year, let's support more students!
If we can reach our Scholarship fundraising goal of $1500, we can increase scholarships offered to 3!
If we can complete our Scholarship Challenge, we'll already be most of the way there! The more we give, the more students we can support!
NEW! - If we can exceed our Scholarship fundraising goal, we will formally launch ICDS Emergency Aid Mini-Grants!
Help support student retention in the face of unexpected financial hardship. By exceeding $1500 raised in our Scholarships fund, we will be able to launch our new Mini-Grants initiative that can provide direct emergency scholarship aid for students in our program.
Giving to the ICDS Special Events Fund helps ICDS offer more open and accessible events
Access is important! Contributions to the Special Events Fund helps offset the major costs of our events and programming, which can include significant access expenses such as sign interpretation. Help us offer more accessible events that are also free and open to the public!
Giving to the Institute for Critical Disability Studies Fund helps support expenses and emergent needs
Donations to our Institute fund also helps support ICDS events such as visiting speaker fees, but it also helps with meeting unexpected or emergent needs. Supporting this fund is important for a small department like ours to help us weather the storms that come our way.
Learn about the ICDS
The ICDS is a new institute at Western Washington University that officially launched in Spring 2022! Since then, we haven't stopped making waves at Western. Over the last year, we have added even more interdisciplinary DISA courses and our interdisciplinary minor in Critical Disability Studies officially graduated our first cohort of Minors last year!
Help us continue our mission by supporting us this Give Day.
ICDS Impact: Western Students and Beyond
"Critical Disability Studies Institute became another space for me to honor my work of the past, present, and future in both the institute and my own timeline. From being a passive volunteer in the 2019 UnConference, to a re-imagined active participant running a workshop in 2022, and now a part of the first co-hort of the Fellows Program."
- JZY, WWU Alum ('22) & ICDS Fellow (2023 Cohort)
Find out more about what the Institute for Critical Disability Studies Does for Students, directly from our undergraduate and graduate students:
In 2023, we launched our Minor in Critical Disability Studies and our first DISA courses! ICDS marked this milestone with a cake at the end of Winter quarter 2023.
About WWU ICDS: Growing a Disability Studies and Action Collaborative
The ICDS represents a group of students, faculty, and staff committed to engaging with disability through an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and collaborative approach. The ICDS uses Give Day fundraising to support our students and to help put on programs and initiatives around campus and beyond.
Our Mission:
- Promote the academic field of Critical Disability Studies
- Foster discourse around accessible teaching and scholarship
- Engage with the campus and local community around issues of disability, accessibility, and culture.
The Institute’s core components include:
Academic Programming
Building Community
Collective Action
Our projects:
- Growing an academic program with courses in Critical Disability Studies (DISA) and a Minor in Critical Disability Studies (CDS)
- Hosting interdisciplinary events including UnConferences and workshops that bring together Western and the local community
- Serving as a regional hub to bring cutting-edge Disability Studies scholars and Disability Justice activists to Western for presentations and lectures
- Supporting Students with:
- Scholarships
- Mentorship and direct Institute involvement
- Employment & Teaching Assistant opportunities
- Internships (in development)
- Professional Development programming for Faculty and Staff
- Fellows Program for faculty, staff, and community members to support disability scholarship and advocacy projects
- Cross-departmental collaborations centering intersectional inclusion, access, disability advocacy, and Universal Design
Many of our projects and initiatives directly benefit students, allowing them to bring together their academic interests to collaborate on topics relevant to the broader community. We bring students valuable experience engaging with disability, culture, and advocacy.
How to Contact ICDS
Questions? Contact the Institute co-directors at: ICDS@wwu.edu
Visit our webpage and learn more here.
