Disability

Question 1

What is the Medical Model of Disability?

What are the pros and cons?

Answer 1

• States disability is intrinsic to the individual
• Restrictions experienced by disabled people is due to their physical or cognitive impairment.
• States interventions should focus on treatment; medicine’s role is to treat or cure.

Pros:

• Focuses on treatment

Cons:

• Has a negative view of disability, sees it as disempowering
• Individualises the issue of disability; ignores social, cultural impacts on disability.
• Medicine defines and controls disabled people.

Question 2

What is the Social Model of disability?

Answer 2

• States disability is extrinsic to the individual
• Social, physical and attitudinal barriers prevent disabled people from participating in society to the same extent as other people.
• Restructions experienced by disabled people are primarily caused by the way society is organised.
• Needs political responses to solve.

Pros:

• Disability is not seen as an inevitable consequence of impairments
• Emphasis the need to remove social, cultural and physical barriers
• Calls for political and social change rather than individual adaptation.

Cons:

• May fail to recognise the significance of impairments on the individual.

Question 3

What is the Interactional Model of disability?

Answer 3

States disability is a complex interaction of impairments, environmental, social and attitudinal/cultural factors.

The role of policies and services is to allow disabled people to live ordinary lives and participate in society to the same extend as non-disabled people.

Question 4

Why is a human rights approach needed in the UNCRPD?

Answer 4

Needed to establish that disabled people are not a separate group and have the same rights as non-disabled people.

Establishes a universal benchmark: if a disabled person’s experiences fall short of this standard it is seen as a human rights violation.

Question 5

What is the UK Equality Act?

Answer 5

States that everyone should have equal treatment in access to employment and private and public services regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, race, marriage or civil partnership

Question 6

Why is human rights and equality legislation needed in disability?

Answer 6

Disabled people experience social, economic and health inequality; as a group they have lower participation in all aspects of life:

• More likely to have no qualifications
• More likely to experience poverty
• More likely to experience discrimination at work
• Less access to healthcare, goods and services
• Poorer health outcomes
• Less likely to be in employment