Social model of disability
Most people would agree that disabled people have fewer opportunities in society than non-disabled people. The way that people in society try to change this depends on what they believe is the cause of this lack of opportunity.
There are two different ways of thinking about disability in society. These are:
- The medical model of disability
- The social model of disability.
Medical model
- Disabled people have impairments
- These are what cause them to have fewer opportunities
- To fix this, we have to find ways of "compensating’ disabled people to "fix’ what is causing them problems
- Society doesn’t need to change.
Social model
- Disabled people may have impairments
- The way society views disabled people concentrates on their impairments
- Society is organised in such a way that it creates barriers to disabled people (non-accessible buildings and information; prejudice, stereotypes, etc.)
- Society needs to change
We believe that changing society to make it more equal will benefit everybody.
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