On the notions of disability and handicap

Abstract

In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH). In addition to a nomenclature and a classification, this publication contains a set of elaborate definitions of the central concepts in the area. This conceptual structure has been the focus of intensive critical discussion during the last decade. In 1989, a special society, the Canadian Society for the ICIDH, presented an alternative characterization of the concepts. This article attempts to continue this discussion by deepening the analysis concerning, in particular, two aspects of disability and handicap: first, the idea of normality contained in the WHO classification; second, the idea of context dependence, which is a special focus of the Canadian group. As a result of this discussion, the author presents an alternative set of definitions of the notions of disability and handicap.