Disability

Abstract

AbstractDisability is a part of the human condition but it is also a contested field of various definitions and policies. Various approaches to understanding and treatment of disabilities are referred to as models of disability. The two main, opposing, approaches are social and medical models. In the medical model, disability is considered as a personal problem, caused by a trauma, an illness, or some other health condition, thus calling for a need for medical cure and care. In contrast with the medical model, which claims the necessity of curing the impairments, the social model views disability as a consequence of an unjust social order and insists on the correction of the society that disables a person. Social views on disability and disability activism mutually influenced each other and contributed to legislative changes. Disability models are embodied and reinforced in welfare policies. Contemporary disability scholarship tries to overcome the dichotomy between medical and social models and takes into account complex issues of body, pain, sexuality and reproduction, intimate experiences and emotions, gender, and age.