SOCIAL & MEDICAL MODEL

Social & Medical of Disability

Social & Medical of Disability

Introduction

Disability activists and advocates have been trying to frame disability and surrounding issues using a social model of disability since at least the 1980s in an effort to distance discourse from the (still) predominant medical model that rules many of our lives. This switch in models was to frame disability in a way that made it clear where many people face barriers and how those barriers can be addressed. However, the vast majority of people has still never heard these terms or understands the implications of these thought frameworks. Of those who have, even within the disability community, there is a sense of division between those who embrace the social model and those who don't feel it is an accurate description of their reality. So, what are these models and how can we bridge the gap?

Medical Model

The medical model of disability focuses on the impairment (physical/health/mental/etc.) as a person's barrier to a “normal” level of functioning in their daily lives and in society. This model focuses on curing the cause of the impairment or correcting that impairment through use of equipment, medication, etc. in order to enhance the individual's quality of life. This has long been the most commonly used model by the medical field, as well as many other organizations. It is by far the one that most people are familiar with and are used to working within. As a concept, a philosophy, i.e. a dominant societal approach to solving the complex phenomenon of disability in all its aspects starting from the medical and all the way to the social the medical model of disability was prevailing during most of the 20th century. Only in the last decades of the past century did the critical reappraisal of the model start with endeavors to formulate an alternative.

The medical model of disability looks upon a person with disability in a restrictive way, most often, as the name of the model itself says, through a prism of deficiency that marks that person and, accordingly, builds the whole societal response dominant viewpoints, laws that are adopted (that do not regulate the issues of antidiscrimination, inclusion, equal rights in the areas of employment, education, participation in all the life segments), services that it developed (most often institutions with a prefix of “special“), or did not develop (adequate support services such as personal assistance services, supported living, work assistants etc.), in a word - created an environment that excluded the person with disabilities from mainstream society and causes his/her inequality in comparison to other citizens.

The medical model of disability focuses on the person with a certain impairment (physical, mental or sensory) which determines a certain diagnosis. Therefore, it views disability as an individual problem, directly caused by disease, injury or some other impairment and thus requires medical aid and care provided by professionals. The essential way of solving the problems of disability following this model is treatment, rehabilitation and adaptation of ...