Theoretical Models of Disability Flashcards
viewing disability as a problem of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma, or other health condition which therefore requires sustained medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals
Medical Model
Strength: can address the biological sources of disabilities, either by clinically curing them or providing ways to medically manage the conditions
Medical Model
Weakness: treats disability as a problem or inherent characteristic of the individual and seeks a cure or medical management of a bodily condition, often
overlooking the broader sociopolitical constraints imposed by unwelcoming or inaccessible environments
Medical Model
sees the issue of ‘disability’ as a socially created problem and a matter of the full integration of individuals into society. In this model, disability is not an attribute of an individual, but rather a complex collection of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment
Social Model
Strength: focus on the disabling conditions in the environment and in society
makes it clear that the barriers and challenges experienced by people with disabilities
are not inevitable, nor are they exclusively a characteristic of the individual’s “broken”
body
Social Model
Weakness: can tend to downplay the embodied aspects of disabilities
too much, as if disability had nothing to do with bodily characteristics at all
Social Model
one that synthesizes what is true in the
medical and social models, without making the mistake each makes in reducing the
whole, complex notion of disability to one of its aspects
Biopsychosocial Model
defines disability by a person’s
inability to participate in work
Economic Model
Strength: recognizes the effect of bodily limitations on a person’s ability to
work, and there may be a need for economic support and / or accommodations for the person’s disability
Economic Model
Weakness: creates a legally defined category of people who are needy, which
can be stigmatizing for people with disabilities
Economic Model
practical perspective that identifies the limitations due to disability, with the intent to create and promote solutions to overcome those limitations
Functional Solutions Model
Strength: seeks to provide
solutions to real-world challenges, while sidestepping the often-convoluted sociopolitical
implications of disability within society
Functional Solutions Model
Weakness: creating products that may be innovative but not practical or useful, or which may be of more benefit to the innovators than to the target population, especially if the proposed solutions are expensive
Functional Solutions Model
refers to a sense of deriving one’s personal identity from membership within a group of like-minded individuals
Social Identity or Cultural Affiliation Model
Strength: accepts the person’s disability completely
and uses it as a point of pride in being associated with other people in a similar
condition
Social Identity or Cultural Affiliation Model
