Comparing The Social Model And The Medical Model Of Disability

The models of disability are conceptual frameworks for understanding disability which shows detailed insight into why certain attitudes towards disability exist and how they are reinforced in society. The two main models are the medical model and the social model. The medical model sees disability as a medical problem, a defect, lying within the individual, their either could be born with it or become disabled due to an illness that has occurred during ones lifespan i.e. Paralysis and amputation. This model brings some negative attitudes held towards people with disabilities; they are seen as defective and dependent, in need of cure or rehabilitation. The desired solution to this problem is often the cure or rehabilitation of the individual, in order to fix the “defect” so that he or she can become closer to “normal.” In Deborah Katlan Study she states “society is not seen as having any underlying responsibility to accommodate people with disabilities; people must instead adapt themselves to existing circumstances, usually with help from medical professionals who provide treatment and rehabilitation “(Kaplan 1998), here Katlan brings a very important point on how disabled people should view the medical model as its benefits and not to exclude themselves from society.
The medical model adopts that the impairment arises from symptoms due to a disorder, syndrome, disease, or condition that is subsequently categorised and classified, Drake (2001) also backs this up in his book by stating “Prevention,treatment,and management of disease processes and traumas in service of reducing or eliminating the pathology associated with disability, as well as secondary conditions, are its goals” (Drake, 2001).Moving on, the social model on the other hand, views disability as coming from society and environmental
barriers. The core definition of the 'Social model' comes in Oliver (1996), which he quotes “In our view, it is society which disables physically impaired people. Disability is something imposed on top of our impairments by the way we are unnecessarily isolated and excluded from full participation in society. Disabled people are therefore an oppressed group in society. To understand this it is necessary to grasp the distinction between the physical impairment and the social situation, called ‘disability’, of people with such impairment. Thus we define impairment as lacking all or part of a limb, or having a defective limb, organism or mechanism of the body and disability as the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a contemporary social organisation which takes little or no account of people who have physical impairments and thus excludes them from participation in the mainstream of social activities.” (Oliver, 1996, 22). Oliver clearly states the difference from impairment otherwise known as (medical Disability) and disability actual self-refining it as socially constructed by excluding people who have disabilities from mainstream social activities. Some proponents of the social model of disability observe that society unjustly privileges certain appearances, levels of functioning or needs as “normal “over others, resulting in social exclusion as well as economic and political marginalisation (e.g.,Imrie, 1997;Dowling & Dolan,2001).