I recently posted a disability quiz for readers to take. This led to a very interesting comment post which referenced a disability model. Of course my reply referenced even more disability models. All of this can get very confusing so I thought that I might clear some of this up in an up-front post on the two model forerunners.

Disability models are not unlike the more common models associated with commerce, education, or even government. They are a set of concepts which people believe in and promote. These concepts help to define and give purpose to a cause or project. They help supporters and advocates develop strategies for resolving disability related issues and by their nature can often act as a best practice set for implementing and sustaining an effort.

The following concept descriptions are very rudimentary. The reality is that most are extremely complex. It would take volumes to cover each one of these.

The Medical Model of Disability-
This concept views Disability as a result of a person’s physical or mental limitations. It makes no strong connection to issues such as society’s attitudes or environmental accessibility. This model is based on concepts and language developed primarily by clinicians and health organizations.

The front-line strategies in this model revolve around curing or eliminating the physical impairment or supplying the appropriate level of care/treatment when cure or remedy is not possible. In this model an individual with an impairment is described as a “Person with a disability” since the disability is considered to be an attribute of the individual.

The Social Model of Disability-
This model views disability as a result of social barriers and physical barriers in the environment. Inaccessible environments, negative social attitudes, lack of inclusion, and other elements all contribute to disabling people. In short, society is not meeting its obligation to a segment of the population by allowing these barriers to exist. Individuals who can not overcome these barriers are rendered disabled and are denied equality.

An individual may have impairments but they are disabled only when they encounter these barriers. Remove the social and environmental barriers and you have removed the disability.

Contrary to the Medical Model, the Social Model aims to fix society rather than fix the individual and thereby make everyone an equal participant. It therefore looks toward social and political solutions as opposed to clinical remedies.

In theory the Social Model is similar in many ways to the civil rights movements of the middle 20th century. It has evolved from very similar beliefs regarding the rights of a minority. These rights include self determination, equality, inclusion, and equal opportunity.

Many Social supporters prefer the term “disabled person” since the disability is considered to be imposed by society rather than being an attribute of the individual.

My unsolicited take on this
We have no choice but to move forward on disability related issues. I don’t think the model names really matter that much and I also believe that many of the concepts behind these names will change or be modified over time. As things develop, as strategies change, as wins and losses are racked up, concepts will need to be adjusted and changed.

My wheelchair take-
Since this is a wheelchair blog I’ll also offer this up. In the Medical Model supplying an appropriate wheelchair to an individual would be considered a component of treating the individual. In the Social Model it would be removal of a barrier to inclusion.

My concept top pick-
My personal favorite is the barriers as a disability component of the Social Model. It removes the need to sort people out by clinical diagnosis and it’s a great unifying concept. Everyone starts off equal and no one starts off disabled.

The wrap-
What is important right now is that people join in and advocate for change. Preferences in models will most often boil down to personal perspective on an issue. Facilitating change, well, that’s all about numbers and loud voices.

If you are into models of disability and want to dig further you can try these-
Social adapted model, Individual model, Economic model, Religious model, Tragedy/Sympathy model.

I probably missed a few but trust me, they are somewhere out there.

Thanks go out to Sacha for kicking this very important topic into play.