Compare And Contrast Models Of Disability

Physical and mental impairments are key concerns in regard to many facets of society and policy making today. Various aspects of everyday life of people with disabilities are influenced by models of disability in particular the medical and the social discourse of incapacity. This essay will focus on analysing the two models as well as explaining the ideology behind both of them. In addition, it will provide illustrative examples for each approach. Furthermore, this essay will elaborate on the issue of diagnosing and labelling incapacitated people and the effects this has on the general public as well as policies, explicitly within the educational sector. As well as discussing the link between the models of disability and labelling of children …show more content…
While both approaches are attempting to improve the health and social standard of the person, the ideology behind them are fundamentally diverse. The medical model concentrates on the individual being the cause of the disability with an ‘ideology of normality’ which ‘aims to restore disabled person to normality’ (Oliver, 1990, p.4). In addition to being focused on the person, it sees the root cause within them and consequently is also referred to as individual model. Therefore, society’s attitude towards incapacity used to be overwhelmingly adverse. It is argued that up until today the medical dialogue remains forming negative connotations with incapacity and dissimilarity (Brittain, 2004). These opinions were for instance exposed by research of non-impaired primary school youngsters describing impaired children as ‘more unintelligent, ugly, boring, cowardly and poor than their non-disabled counterparts’ (Hodkinson, 2007, p. 70). In contrast the social model sees the environment as the source of disability. Although not opposing medical intervention, it recognises that no cure exists and regards disability rather as a social condition. Therefore, it is aiming at establishing equality. Segregation from the conventional environment and thus isolation is perceived as one possible effect if this model is not fully implemented. Examples of the dissimilar approaches can be found in many aspects of everyday life which emphasise distinctively the issue of separation and inclusion. Whereas the medical framework supports special transportation for children with physical or cognitive deficiencies, the social model adopts a policy of making mainstream means of transport accessible for example by providing ramps for wheelchair users. Another case is specific educational settings for children with learning disabilities which are favoured in the medical model over including the minors into