Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability", where impairment was an impairment of an individual's mind or body, while disability was considered a social construct. This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability: the social and medical models of disability. In 1999 the social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field.

However, in recent years, the division between the social and medical models has been challenged. Alternative models of disability have increased, allowing for greater complexity and specificity in how disability is theorized. Additionally, there has been an increased focus on interdisciplinary research. For example, recent investigations suggest using "cross-sectional markers of stratification" may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of worsening the disablement processes. Such risk factors can be acute or chronic stressors, which can increase cumulative risk factors (overeating, excessive drinking, etc.) The decline of immune function with age and decrease of inter-personal relationships which can impact cognitive function with age.

Disability studies courses include work in disability history, theory, legislation, policy, ethics, and the arts. However, students are taught to focus on the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities in practical terms. The field is focused on increasing individuals with disabilities access to civil rights and improving their quality of life.

Disability studies emerged in the 1980s primarily in the US, the UK, and Canada. In 1986, the Section for the Study of Chronic Illness, Impairment, and Disability of the Social Science Association (United States) was renamed the Society for Disability Studies. The first US disabilities studies program emerged in 1994 at Syracuse University. The first edition of the Disabilities Studies Reader (one of the first collections of academic papers related to disability studies) was published in 1997. The field grew rapidly over the next ten years. In 2005, the Modern Language Association established disability studies as a "division of study".

While disability studies primarily emerged in the US, the UK, and Canada, disability studies were also conducted in other countries through different lenses. For instance, Germany has been involved with queer disability studies since the beginning of the early 20th century. The disability studies in Germany are influenced by the written literary works of feminist sexologists who study how being disabled affects one's sexuality and ability to feel pleasure. In Norway, disability studies are focused on the literary context.

A variation emerged in 2017 with the first accessibility studies program at Central Washington University with an interdisciplinary focus on social justice, universal design, and international Web Accessibility Guidelines (WAG3) as a general education knowledge base.

Universities have long studied disabilities from a clinical perspective, and discussions around the depathologization of disability began following the disability rights movement, which arose in the 1950s. In 1981, the United Nations' International Year of Disabled Persons brought disability into the public sphere as a human rights issue. Five years later, the Social Science Association's Section for the Study of Chronic Illness, Impairment, and Disability was renamed the Society for Disability Studies, and its journal Disability Studies Quarterly was the first journal in disability studies. The first US disabilities studies program emerged in 1994 at Syracuse University. However, courses and programs were very few. In the 1997 first edition of the Disability Studies Reader, Lennard J. Davis wrote that "it had been virtually impossible to have someone teaching about disability within the humanities". In the second edition, written ten years later, he writes that "all that has changed", but "just because disability studies is on the map, does not mean that is easy to find".

Still the field continued to grow throughout the 2000s. In 2009 Disability Studies Quarterly published A Multinational Review of English-language Disability Studies Degrees and Courses. They found that from 2003 to 2008 the number of disability studies stand-alone studies programs in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada grew from 56 to 108 and the number of degree-granting programs grew from 212 to 420. A total of 17 degrees in disability studies were offered, with 11 programs in the US, 2 in the UK, 3 in Canada, and 1 in Australia.