A ‘model’ is an ideology or system held by a particular group, in this essay the models referred to will focus upon those surrounding disability and impairment. The models being analysed are the medical model and social model of disability, and their impact on people with impairments. The theory of the social model of disability was a reaction to the ascendance of the medical model in society. Though social modelling ideologies were held in the 1960s, the idea was brought forward by the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) in 1975. The UPIAS claimed that it was society that disabled people, thus bringing about the ‘social model’. The medical and social models of disability have then been furthered upon by different theorists, scholars and disability rights advocates. This essay will explore the definition and systems behind these two models of disability, while using articles on the media portrayal of disability to help bring a greater understanding of these models and how they work. The medical model of disability is the theory that the problem of the disability lies with the individual, and that managing the disability with drugs or therapy, finding a cure or managing the disability is the best course of treatment. Olkin (2001, p. 26) states that, ‘The medical model gained momentum in the mid-1800s with the advent of more enlightened and humanistic medicine… Disability is seen as a medical problem that resides in the individual.’ The overall aim of the medical model is to ‘normalise’ the individual as much as medically possible. Jesperson and McNamee (2013, p. 5) state ‘Where certain persons cannot be normalised they are left in a parlous, limbo, state of apparent abnormality.' If the individual cannot ... ... middle of paper ... ...with an impairment speaking from their point of view, and this is the greatest way to encourage people to follow and push for equality, inclusion and the social model. Like the medical model, the social model is not without its criticisms. Shakespeare (2006) argues that though society does disable people, their bodies also do. He believes that you cannot just ignore the impairment and blame society for the fact that people are disabled. It has also been argued by (Bury & Gabe, 2003) that the social model oversimplifies a much larger issue. This essay has served to give a brief understanding of the theories and practices of the medical and social models of disabilities, and how they affect people with disabilities. It is an important issue to consider as there are still many things in the world the disable people and we still have steps to make society inclusive.
Clare provides different paradigms of disability in order to demonstrate the wide variety of views concerning disabilities. He states that the paradigms of disability "all turn disability into problems faced by individual people, locate those problems in our bodies, and define those bodies as wrong," (Clare, 2001, p. 360). The first paradigm model Clare explains is the medical model which defines disability as a disease or a condition that is treatable. Next, he explains that the charity model defines disability as a tragedy and the supercrip model defines disability as a tough challenge that individuals overcome; the supercrip model makes individuals with disabilities out to be superheroes. Lastly, Clare explains that the moral model defines disability as a weakness. In order to demonstrate the paradigms and how they overlap, Clare cleverly uses an array of popular examples. One significant example is Jerry Lewis' telethon. During this time, Jerry Lewis attempts to raise money in order to find a cure for a condition. Overall, his Labor Day telethon raises money to end a disability by finding a cure for the broken bodies. This telethon employs the medical model because it demonstrates disability as a condition that needs to be treated. In addition, the telethon employs the charity model because it shows disability as a misfortune. All four disability paradigms are known as the social model because they are the ideas that society has about certain bodies. When society creates these ideas about disabilities, they create unnatural
Nancy Mairs, born in 1943, described herself as a radical feminist, pacifist, and cripple. She is crippled because she has multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a chronic disease involving damage to the nerve cells and spinal cord. In her essay Disability, Mairs’ focus is on how disabled people are portrayed, or rather un-portrayed in the media. There is more than one audience that Mairs could have been trying to reach out to with this piece. The less-obvious audience would be disabled people who can connect to her writing because they can relate to it. The more obvious audience would be physically-able people who have yet to notice the lack of disabled people being portrayed by the media. Her purpose is to persuade the audience that disabled people should be shown in the media more often, to help society better cope with and realize the presence of handicapped people. Mairs starts off by saying “For months now I’ve been consciously searching for representation of myself in the media, especially television. I know I’d recognize this self becaus...
Disability is a ‘complex issue’ (Alperstein, M., Atkins, S., Bately, K., Coetzee, D., Duncan, M., Ferguson, G., Geiger, M. Hewett, G., et al.., 2009: 239) which affects a large percentage of the world’s population. Due to it being complex, one can say that disability depends on one’s perspective (Alperstein et al., 2009: 239). In this essay, I will draw on Dylan Alcott’s disability and use his story to further explain the four models of disability being The Traditional Model, The Medical Model, The Social Model and The Integrated Model of Disability. Through this, I will reflect on my thoughts and feelings in response to Dylan’s story as well as to draw on this task and my new found knowledge of disability in aiding me to become
Shakespeare, T. (1993) Disabled people's self-organisation: a new social movement?, Disability, Handicap & Society, 8, pp. 249-264 .
The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional
It could be said that in modern industrial society, disability is still widely regarded as a tragic individual failing, in which its “victims” require care, sympathy and medical diagnosis. Whilst medical science has served to improve and enhance the quality of life for many, it could be argued that it has also led to further segregation and separation of many individuals. This could be caused by its insistence on labelling one as “sick”, “abnormal” or “mental”. Consequently, what this act of labelling and diagnosing has done, is enforce the societal view that a disability is an abnormality that requires treatment and that any of its “victims” should do what is required to be able to function in society as an able bodied individual. The social model of disability argues against this and instead holds the view that it is society, not the individual, that needs to change and do what is required, so that everyone can function in society.
The most interesting topic discussed in chapter seven is the sections concerning the medical and social models of disability. I find the difference of the focus of the two models very interesting because one leads to a very different perspective of disability than the other. I find myself aligning more with the thought that both models have to exist in order for the full understanding of disability to come into view. In other words, I do not completely agree nor disagree with either model. To explain, as the medical model is based off of the ideology of normality, which suggests that being in a normal state of good health is the standard for which to base off any deviance or sickness, a definition of normal is required. A definition of good
...isability is a denial of reality or truth, not societal oppression but a denial or disregard to the truth that disabled people simply cannot access or be involved in all activities within society, due to their impairments. Conversely we could argue that a societal defence mechanism is a denial of its own weakness that makes it exploit the weaknesses of others by isolating people with differences from society. However, from a social model perspective we could hypothesise that defence mechanisms are socially constructed and a way of creating internal harmony by identifying cause and effect, again from the environment in which the person lives. Defence mechanisms are a form of self esteem promotion, similar to the social model of disability, as the aim is challenge oppression and isolation in a bid to improve the self esteem of those with disabilities. (Jackson 1984)
The World Health Organisation, WHO, (1980) defines disability in the medical model as a physical or mental impairment that restricts participation in an activity that a ‘normal’ human being would partake, due to a lack of ability to perform the task . Michigan Disability Rights Coalition (n.d.) states that the medical model emphasizes that there is a problem regarding the abilities of the individual. They argue that the condition of the disabled persons is solely ‘medical’ and as a result the focus is to cure and provide treatment to disabled people (Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, 2014). In the medical model, issues of disability are dealt with according to defined government structures and policies and are seen as a separate issue from ordinary communal concerns (Emmet, 2005: 69). According to Enabling Teachers and Trainers to Improve the Accessibility of Adult Education (2008) people with disabilities largely disa...
Each considers a different way the cultural notion of what disability is and should be affects a general perspective of the concept of disability, as well as an individual sense of self in relation to one’s level of ability. Beginning with Representation, Garland-Thomson looks at how disability is situated in relation to a mythical norm. She also takes a more liberal stance on how to define being disable. This is represented in her decision to consider the act of gendered or assigning a race to someone as a disabling action. The rationale behind this is that, just as disabled individuals as marked as either having a “deficiency” or an “abnormality (Garland-Thomson 7)”, other aspects of identity can also be labeled “too much” or “not enough (8).”
In the essay “Disability,” Nancy Mairs discusses the lack of media attention for the disabled, writing: “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anyone’s life.” An ordinary person has very little exposure to the disabled, and therefore can only draw conclusions from what is seen in the media. As soon as people can picture the disabled as regular people with a debilitating condition, they can begin to respect them and see to their needs without it seeming like an afterthought or a burden. As Mairs wrote: “The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time.” Looking at the issue from this angle, it is easy to see that many disabled people were ordinary people prior to some sort of accident. Mairs develops this po...
It recognises that ‘impairment’ is not an issue, because it's usually physical, intellectual or medically linked, resulting in loss of mental or physical abilities. Example: ‘’A person who has paraplegia, will not be able to move their legs’’. On the other hand, disability occurs due to environmental structures. Example: ‘’A wheelchair user will find it very disabling trying to go through a narrow entrance’’. Activity 9.5.
Literature review Western versus non-western cultural perspective on disability Disability thought in the most basic terms is the lack of competence, an aspect that prohibits an individuals’ normal capability to do particular activities. The term disability expresses the limitations that result from a dysfunction in the body or mind of an individual, disability majorly focuses on the physical aspects for example blindness, chronic incapacitating illness, being lame and mental deficiency (Angers & Haffly, 1973). History has it that different cultures exhibited various unjust acts towards the disabled, until now that some societies are enlightened and hence the need to understand that people with disability are equally as other people in the
So, in other words if a wheelchair user individual is unable to access entry to the building it is seen as the wheelchair is the problem and not the place. This medical approach is based on the belief that the difficulties an individual is suffering from is their responsibility and it is said that they should adopt to the environment, the focus is highlighted by the disability and not the person itself. The model focuses on the disadvantage provided by the physical and or mental impairments not in the environment they are in, these impairments causes the disability per the medical
Every day in America, a woman loses a job to a man, a homosexual high school student suffers from harassment, and someone with a physical or mental disability is looked down upon. People with disabilities make up the world’s largest and most disadvantaged minority, with about 56.7 million people living with disabilities in the United States today (Barlow). In every region of the country, people with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived from some of life’s fundamental experiences. They have little hope of inclusion within education, getting a job, or having their own home (Cox). Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed in life, but discrimination is limiting opportunities and treating people badly because of their disability. Whether born from ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, or hate, society’s attitudes limit people from experiencing and appreciating the full potential a person with a disability can achieve. This treatment is unfair, unnecessary, and against the law (Purdie). Discrimination against people with disabilities is one of the greatest social injustices in the country today. Essential changes are needed in society’s basic outlook in order for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life.