Knowra Social model of disability Social model of disability The social model of disability locates disability chiefly in barriers created by society, rather than in an individual’s impairment. It distinguishes bodily or cognitive differences from the exclusion those differences encounter.
Impairment : A loss or difference in a person’s bodily, sensory, cognitive, or mental functioning. The model separates impairment from disability, which it locates chiefly in social barriers.
Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation : A British disabled people’s organization founded in 1972 to oppose segregation and demand control over their lives. Its members developed the political analysis that became the British social model.
Accessible public transport : Transport systems designed and operated so disabled people can use them independently and safely. Step-free stations and usable vehicles remove barriers to mobility and participation.
Disability studies : An interdisciplinary field examining disability through social, political, cultural, and historical analysis. The model helped establish disability as a subject of structural and political inquiry.
Impairment effects : The pain, fatigue, illness, or functional consequences associated directly with an impairment. These experiences raise questions about what social barriers alone can explain.
Accessibility : The design of environments, products, and services so people with varied abilities can use them. Accessible design removes barriers the model identifies as disabling.
Fundamental Principles of Disability : A 1976 statement by the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation defining disability as social oppression. The statement set out the model’s influential distinction between impairment and disability.
Web accessibility : The practice of making websites and digital services usable by people with disabilities. Accessible digital design addresses exclusion produced by online interfaces.
Nothing About Us Without Us : A principle demanding that decisions affecting a group include meaningful participation by its members. The model’s political roots support disabled people’s authority over disability policy.
Feminist disability theory : An approach examining disability through gender, embodiment, care, and intersecting power relations. It questions whether separating impairment from disability captures embodied and care-related experience.
Show all 29