Understanding the Models of Disability
How we think about disability matters. How we relate to the concept affects the language we use to describe it, the issues surrounding it that we focus on, and the way disabled people exist in society. Because we have such different perspectives, they don't always agree.
Sociologists call these differing concepts ‘models’, and broadly, there are two of them: the medical model, which has a long, still visible history, and the social model, which arose in the 1970s and is now the framework preferred by the United Nations and the UK government.
When you’re not disabled yourself, thinking about disability as anything other than a medical phenomenon can take a bit of work. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that interventions like drugs and therapies are the optimal way of approaching disability, but it does run the risk of closing our minds to the alternatives, and that’s the key difference between the medical and the social model. To learn more, scroll on.
The Medical Model
The medical model of disability considers disability to be an impairment that we should attempt to fix. It centres on the problem in the individual and emphasises the disabled person’s need to adapt to society. This model focuses on the medical needs of disabled people and uses a range of therapies to make it easier for them to interact with the world as it is, with little thought given to the ways the world is hostile to them.
While undoubtedly driven by a sincere desire to help, the focus on the individual of the medical model can have some dire consequences. Segregated schooling, for example, sets an expectation of a segregated adult life. The focus on what a person can’t do rather than what they can promotes an infantilised and hopeless view of disability where disabled people are deserving of pity and even objects of fear.
For a fictionalised but authentic picture of the medical model of disability in action, the pre-and early NHS BBC drama ‘Call The Midwife’ is a great place to look. Set in the mid-20th century, the show's storylines include the use of group homes and ‘special’ boarding schools for children and adults with Down's Syndrome, epilepsy, and limb difference and other conditions arising from the thalidomide scandal. The series also highlights other attitudes associated with the medical model - shame around having or acquiring a disability and self-exclusion from social activities.
Critics of the medical model highlight these perceptions as harmful because their effects are so wide-ranging.
The Social Model
Where the medical model centres the ‘problem’ of disability in the disabled person, the social model emphasises the opposite and focuses on how society impairs the ability of disabled people to interact with the world. Where the medical model might say, ‘this person cannot use stairs without pain, let's give them painkillers, ’ the social model says ‘this person cannot use stairs without pain, so we need a lift, a ramp and enough space to manoeuvre a wheelchair’.
The model argues that disability is created by your environment—both literally, in the physical world around us, and in terms of social structures like bias and discrimination that we can’t avoid. That means that instead of trying to ‘fix’ the impairments of disabled people, the social model endorses changing the physical, political, and social environment to accommodate them by removing barriers to participation.
The social model doesn’t mean that we don’t use medical interventions at all but that they are complemented by wider adjustments. Those adjustments have the added bonus of benefiting other people, too (a ramp that is put in place for wheelchair users also benefits a pushchair, for example, and a video recording of a training course that’s been made for employees with concentration issues also benefits a carer who had to take emergency leave the day of the course), which also makes society fairer overall.
In 1990, responding to activism from disabled people and academics, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one of the first pieces of civil rights legislation that addressed disability discrimination, came into law. It's unlikely such a thing would have happened without the social mode as a framework because the medical model does not see society as a part of what makes a person disabled.
Within the social model of disability, there are two strands which overlap and contrast: the minority model, which draws on the similar experiences of discrimination that disabled people have to other minoritised groups, and the identity model, which embraces disability as a positive identity. You’ll see exponents of both models participating in events like Disability Pride Month and awareness days, striking a delicate balance between acknowledging the struggle and celebrating shared cultures.
The social model has become prominent because it aligns with one of the biggest values we embrace: a fair shot for everyone.
What does this have to do with businesses?
When it comes to disabled people in the workplace, the medical model is pessimistic. It focuses on the perceived negatives of accommodating disabled employees and emphasises the related costs. It also perpetuates the negative attitudes that are the status quo.
The social model, on the other hand, takes a more optimistic view. It shifts the focus to the value of a diverse workforce to employers and the value of inclusive attitudes to society, pushing businesses to evolve to support the needs of disabled employees and clients.
By emphasising the benefits to shareholders, teams and managers of inclusivity - benefits like more innovative thinking, better customer understanding, improved team cohesion and a lower recruitment spend - the social model of disability encourages us to value disabled people for their contributions and potential.
Understanding the different models of disability is a great tool for an employer. Instead of asking disabled people to adapt to you, the social model empowers you to ask what barriers you can remove, reflecting your values as an organisation and proving you can lead the way on inclusion.
