The society's overall goal is to promote disability studies as a serious academic discipline on par with philosophy, the social sciences, and similar fields.
[4] Its founders are Daryl Evans, Nora Groce, Steve Hey, Gary Kiger, John Seidel, Jessica Scheer and Irving Kenneth Zola (1935–1994).
The Society maintains affiliation status with the Western Social Science Association[5] (WSSA) through its Chronic Disease and Disability section.
Currently, the SDS has hundreds of members both nationally and internationally who continue to make disability studies a part of academic conversations.
Past award winners: Devva Kasnitz (2014), Richard Scotch (2013), Carol Gill (2012), Tobin Siebers (2011), Rosemarie Garland Thomson (2010), Elizabeth Depoy and Stephen Gilson (2009), and Steven J. Taylor (2008).