Social construction of disability

Proponents of a social model of disability derive their arguments from social constructionism. They combine different disabling conditions under one term: disability. Subsequently, they apply the specific viewpoint of the disability rights social movement of people with physical disabilities to other conditions such as intellectual disabilities, autism, sensory disabilities, and emotional and behavioral disorders. Based on flawed premises and a romantic concept of social inclusion, special education is condemned as segregationist. The result is an unjust and uniform educational policy toward people whose disabilities are not physical

Disability has become an increasingly prominent topic in contemporary society, politics and academia. This in turn has given rise to the field of Disability Studies and the Disability Rights Movement and instigated debate over the interpretive framework used to define and analyze disability. The first of the more prominent frameworks is the individual model, which focuses on a disabled individual’s “impaired” body or mind. The second is the social/cultural model, which emanates from the idea that disability is a socio-political construct and that “society’s myths, fears, and stereotypes” (Shapiro, 5) are the true barriers to individuals with disabilities. While both models have strengths and weaknesses, it is the social/cultural model that is generally favored by the Disability Rights Movement, in Disability Studies, and by individuals with disabilities themselves. This is namely because this model is arguably a more holistic perspective from which to analyze disability and discourages the oppression, marginalization, stigmatization, and injustice that has often resulted from the individual interpretation.

The rhetoric of the social model of disability is presented, and its basic claims are critiqued. Proponents of the social model use the distinction between impairment and disability to reduce disabilities to a single social dimension—social oppression. They downplay the role of biological and mental conditions in the lives of disabled people. Consequences of denying biological and mental realities involving disabilities are discussed. People will benefit most by recognizing both the biological and the social dimensions of disabilities. Keywords: biological and mental conditions, dichotomy, disability, impairment, social model

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH IN HEALTH SCIENCES III, 2022

Kultura-Społeczeństwo-Edukacja, 2020

Twardowski Andrzej, Controversies around the social model of disability. Culture – Society – Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 7–21, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI: 10.14746/kse.2019.16.1 The aim of the article is to present a critical analysis of the social model of disability.In the first part, the author discusses the genesis, essence and basic advantages of the social model of disability. Next, five major disadvantages of this model are analysed:/1/ avoiding dealing with impairment as an important aspect of the lives of people with disabilities, /2/ separating impairment from disability, /3/ assuming that all people with disabilities are exposed to social oppression, /4/ postulating the creation of an environment without barriers and /5/ assuming that disability is the basis of the identity of people affected by it. In the final part of the article, the author presents reflections on the possibility of creating a new, more holistic model of disabil...

Exceptional Children, 2011

Proponents of a social model of disability derive their arguments from social constructionism. They combine different disabling conditions under one term: disability. Subsequently, they apply the specific viewpoint of the disability rights social movement of people with physical disabilities to other conditions such as intellectual disabilities, autism, sensory disabilities, and emotional and behavioral disorders. Based on flawed premises and a romantic concept of social inclusion, special education is condemned as segregationist. The result is an unjust and uniform educational policy toward people whose disabilities are not physical.

This paper will be focused on the social model of disability that views the disadvantages experienced by people with disabilities. The social model of disability is a sociological model of disability that shows the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities are primarily the result of society organizing rather than their individual disabilities. The social model contrasts with the medical model of disability, which views disability as an individual problem caused by a medical condition. It is a theoretical framework that views disability as a problem caused not by a person's physical or mental impairment, but by barriers imposed by society. According to this model, people with disabilities are not inherently "less" or "deficient", but are excluded from full participation in society due to lack of accessibility, discrimination and stigma.

Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2013

Kiuppis, F. & R. Sarromaa Hausstätter, R. (Eds.), Inclusive education twenty years after Salamanca. Peter Lang, New York., 2015

To speak of disability is, fundamentally, to speak of oppression. Disability is a social construction which questions, subordinates, invalidates, and steals the humanity of people who are stigmatised through labelling. This is a pervasive phenomenon, its breeding ground being the socialisation process; a persistent, incisive process which diminishes the possibilities for growth and transformation. The alienation is reinforced during schooling, when the stigma becomes internalised due to the legitimation of the process and the exertion of pressure. However, individuals are not passive consumers of hegemonic interpretations. They do not merely adapt to these directives. Throughout their lives they generate responses and resistances, insofar as the prevailing order can be interpreted as a conflict which both subjugates and mutilates. Generated from emotions such as anger, these initial responses will necessarily become mechanisms of intelligent resistance, which may jeopardise the oppressive interpretations that dehumanise both school and society. As a result, the problem can leave the realm of the body, and education is then transformed into liberation by restoring hope: the future is never predetermined.