Disability and Barriers

In the past people with disabilities have been viewed as being a “problem” or a “less than whole” where the focus was on their condition or impairment. This way of thinking was very dominant in the 1900’s to 1970’s and known as the medical model where people were institutionalised, detained or confined and hid away from society. The 1980’s brought about change when the social model emerged with the concept of inclusion, where people with disabilities were viewed as individuals with rights. There was an ethos of protecting and accepting disabled people, with a move towards integration and inclusion into society. The social model was for people with disabilities to have a right to actively participate in, and contribute to society as equals and without dependence on family, institutions or charity.
The world health organisation in 1980 used a medicalised definition of Disability:

‘An Impairment is any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function; a disability is any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the range that is considered normal for a human being…’

The Oxford Dictionary definition of Inclusion:

“The action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure”

A disability can range from being very mild to severe but each person still will have a certain capacity to be included in everyday society whether it be education, employment, transport, relationships, independence, dignity to make their own choices but it’s how society allows the person to be included is what is important. The words which society uses to describe someone with a disability can often reveal the attitudes of the society towards the individual. Despite changes in the actual words used, the terminology used to describe disabilities has continued to label those with an disability as being different from and considerable less able than the rest of society thus excluding rather than including