Medical Model Of Disability Research Articles

Mental Health Conditions Between Neurodiversity and the Medical Model

Scholarship in neuroethics and related disciplines has long reflected on the value of different conceptual models of disability and impairment. While this theoretical work is valuable, centering the voices of people with mental health conditions in neuroethics research can help us better understand how such models apply in everyday people’s lives. Drawing on qualitative data from a study on mental health peer providers’ lived experiences of recovery, this paper will demonstrate that peers borrow from both a neurodiversity framework and the medical model of disability, though their feelings toward the two models were often complex and ambivalent. These findings advance neuroethics by indicating that future research and clinical practice should take a nuanced approach to responding to the needs of people with mental health conditions and turn to peers as experts, honoring their values and recognizing both the promise and pitfalls of living with a mental health condition.

Community Member Views on Autism Intervention: Effects of Closeness to Autistic People with Intellectual Disabilities And Nonspeaking Autistic People.

Controversy regarding the neurodiversity movement (NDM), the social and medical models of disability, autism intervention goals, and causal attributions of disability contributes to divides in the autistic and autism communities. The present study investigates the views of autistic and non-autistic autistic and autism community members on these topics. We explored whether these views are shaped by having close relationships to autistic people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and nonspeaking autistic (NSA) people. A total of 504 autistic and autism community members (278 autistic, 226 non-autistic) completed an online survey about theoretical models and intervention goals. Participants reported whether they had one or more close relationships with NSA people, autistic people with ID, neither, or both. Overall, there was considerable consensus regarding desired intervention goals: normalization goals were generally opposed, while participants generally supported well-being, societal reform, supportive environment, and adaptive skill goals. While autistic participants reported less support for normalization and adaptive skills goals than non-autistic participants, they expressed somewhat more enthusiasm for societal reform and supportive environments than non-autistic people. Autistic people supported the NDM more and the medical model less than non-autistic people. Those close to autistic people with ID gave higher ratings to adaptive skill goals. On average, participants not close to autistic people with ID saw the challenges of those without ID as being slightly more due to environmental/social factors than the challenges of those with ID; there was no such statistical difference among those close to autistic people with ID. Further research investigating community views, with the inclusion of more autistic people with ID and NSA people themselves, is needed, but the results of this study suggest that the broader autistic and autism communities see NDM-consistent intervention goals as appropriate for all autistic people, including NSA people and those with ID. As autism interventions have often pursued unpopular normalization goals, this suggests directions for reform.

The gift of dyslexia: what is the harm in it?

Dyslexia, characterized by word reading and spelling deficits, has historically been viewed through a medical model of disability. However, a countermovement has emerged, emphasizing the strengths and abilities of neurodiverse individuals, including those with dyslexia. The concept of neurodiversity, which was initially introduced to help inform understanding of a mild form of autism, has expanded to include dyslexia. The expansion has occurred alongside a similar portrayal of dyslexia as an advantage that comes with specific gifts, creating a positive stereotype. While intended to empower individuals with dyslexia, the translation of the concept of neurodiversity to dyslexia in this way can inadvertently stigmatize and isolate those who do not fit this positive stereotype of dyslexia. This review, following a perspective review article format, synthesizes existing literature on the purported gifts of dyslexia and the implications of both negative and positive stereotypes on the well-being of individuals with dyslexia. The findings of this review underscore the importance of dispelling myths about dyslexia and advocating against the use of stereotypes, both negative and positive, in portraying dyslexia. Doing so will help remove the harmful effects of stigmatization, stereotype threat, and the potential of a fixed mindset inherent to being stereotyped.

What is disability history the history of?

This article has two connected aims. First, to contour the boundaries of modern disability history through outlining its development and second, to provide a new methodological agenda for disability history. The design model of disability has outlined an important new programme to integrate the social and medical models of disability by foregrounding materials. Yet 'disability things' (to use Ott's memorable term) have been part of disability history's genesis since the material turn, which started the process of social historians recovering the lives of those not recorded in textual sources through objects, including prosthetics. From considering objects as things, the influence of Science and Technology Studies scholars pushed disability historians to further consider objects as agents and objects in use. These approaches have highlighted the differential levels of autonomy and power that objects and their users have in making history. However, this focus on materials has highlighted visible and recorded disability over 'invisible' disability, which has perpetuated its opacity and created definitional difficulties around disability demarcation. Medical history methodologies aimed at revealing the 'patient view' can help bring people back into focus but uphold the categories of patients and biomedicine in a way that impedes the aims of disability scholars. Focusing on exactly what is hidden is less useful than focusing on how it is hidden, and science and technology study methodologies can illuminate these processes.

Barriers to inclusion: Incorporating the social model in the study of children’s understanding of disability

How can we improve children’s attitudes toward and their treatment of disabled peers? One way is by targeting the model that non-disabled children hold about disability, which in Western cultures tends to be that the challenges disabled people face arise from intrinsic factors, or characteristics inherent to the individual (i.e., the medical model of disability). In this paper, we describe a model of disability that highlights external factors contributing to the challenges disabled people face (i.e., the social model). Drawing on research showing that children’s attitudes toward other stigmatized groups can be improved as they learn about structural explanations for group disparities, we suggest that exposing children to the social model of disability may have similarly beneficial effects on the ways they think about and treat disabled peers. We highlight some challenges that this approach may encounter–challenges that, we argue, cognitive developmentalists are well-positioned to address.

"I Love Every Part of You"

"I Love Every Part of You"

The Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Genomics and Disability: Findings from a Scoping Review and Their Human Rights Implications

ObjectivesGenomic advancements affect people with disabilities. This paper presents the findings of a scoping literature review on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of genomic technologies for people with disability. The human rights implications of the ELSI findings are then discussed briefly with reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).MethodsA systematic search of the ELSI literature was conducted. Via a process of abstract screening and full-text review, 288 sources of evidence were included in the review. Data extraction involved identifying the ELSI discussed in each source, which were thematically analysed to generate ELSI themes and to identify relevant linkages to the UNCRPD.ResultsTen ELSI themes were identified as having relevant UNCRPD linkages including reproductive autonomy, issues related to cost and access, the downside of knowing about one’s genetic makeup, lagging legislation in light of the rapid advancement of genomic technologies, genetic discrimination, the stigmatisation and devaluation of people with disabilities, the potential resurgence of eugenics and the medical model of disability, and the involvement of people with disabilities in conversations about genomic technologies. These themes have relevant and direct linkages to several UNCRPD rights including equality, non-discrimination, diversity, accessibility, full participation, identity, and freedom of expression.ConclusionsThe review findings highlight that there is scope for the development of a charter on human rights specific to genomic technologies in the context of disability, which could guide ethical and socially appropriate developments in the field of genomic technologies in future.

#ActuallyAutistic Twitter as a Site for Epistemic Resistance and Crip Futurity

The Internet has, for several decades, played a critical role in autistic self-advocacy and community building. This semi-autoethnographic, interpretivist study turns to #ActuallyAutistic Twitter to examine autistic concerns about autism research, how these concerns differ from those of autism researchers, and how autistics interact with autism research and researchers. I find that #ActuallyAutistic Twitter discourses align with the neurodiversity paradigm, while dominant autism discourses in the academy align with the medical model of disability. Though both orientations towards autism research sometimes share research priorities, they represent fundamentally irreconcilable approaches to these priorities and autism, more broadly. I explore how autistics on Twitter interact with non-autistic researchers and how the tenor of these interactions varies according to which research paradigm a particular researcher subscribes. I conclude with a discussion of how HCI researchers interested in autism can operationalize these findings by approaching their work through the framework of crip technoscience.

Reflect, Reframe, and Re-Imagine Theory and Practice in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences: Introduction to the Forum.

Reflect, Reframe, and Re-Imagine Theory and Practice in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences: Introduction to the Forum.

A Critical Analysis of Standardized Testing in Speech and Language Therapy.

This review article critically interrogates the history and the current practice of standardized assessment in speech and language therapy. Speech and language assessments utilizing standardized linguistic norms are a critical tool for constructing disability and controlling disabled individuals. Such practices are rooted in a medical model of disability where the linguistic practice(s) of the individual is pathologized to create normalcy and disorder. We examine how these practices are anchored in eugenics and the racist logics of intelligence testing in which racialized populations were rendered as linguistically and biologically inferior. This review article shows how ideologies governing standardized assessments are influenced by racism, ableism, and the nation-state and serve as foundational mechanisms to enable surveillance and capital production. It demonstrates how standard language ideologies are central to standardized testing. Speech and language therapy practices upholding these ideologies contribute to unrestrained wealth generation for the testing industry. The review article ends with a call for clinicians, educators, and researchers to critically examine the relationship between standardized assessment, race, disability, and capitalism in speech-language therapy. This process will contribute toward dismantling the hegemonic role of standardized assessment in oppression and marginalization of speech and language-disabled individuals.

COVID-19 clinical outcomes by patient disability status: A retrospective cohort study

BackgroundPeople with disabilities might experience worse clinical outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but evidence is limited. ObjectiveTo investigate if people with disabilities requiring assistance are more likely to experience severe COVID-19 or death. MethodsData from the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Precision Medicine Analytics Platform Registry (JH-CROWN) included 6494 adult patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and admitted between March 4, 2020–October 29, 2021. Severe COVID-19 and death were defined using the occurrence and timing of clinical events. Assistive needs due to disabilities were reported by patients or their proxies upon admission. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the associations between disability status and severe COVID-19 or death. Primary models adjusted for demographics and secondary models additionally adjusted for clinical covariates. ResultsIn this clinical cohort (47–73 years, 49% female, 39% Black), patients with disabilities requiring assistance had 1.35 times (95% confidence interval [CI]:1.01, 1.81) the hazard of severe COVID-19 among patients <65 years, but not among those ≥65 years, equating to an additional 17.5 severe COVID-19 cases (95% CI:7.7, 28.2) per 100 patients. A lower risk of mortality was found among patients <65 years, but this finding was not robust due to the small number of deaths. ConclusionsPeople with disabilities requiring assistance aged <65 years are more likely to develop severe COVID-19. Although our study is limited by using a medical model of disability, these analyses intend to further our understanding of COVID-19 outcomes among people with disabilities. Also, standardized disability data collection within electronic health records is needed.

Resisting Ableism in School-Based Speech-Language Therapy: An Invitation to Change.

Resisting Ableism in School-Based Speech-Language Therapy: An Invitation to Change.

Tasks of the state policy of formation and implementation of social protection for persons with disabilities in Ukraine

The article is devoted to the study of the tasks of the state policy of formation and implementation of social protection of persons with disabilities in Ukraine. The article analyzes international and national legislation in the researched area. In the article, the author provides the author's definition of the tasks of the state policy of the formation and implementation of social protection of persons with disabilities as a predetermined complex of decisions and actions of subjects of power, aimed at solving the problems of social protection of persons with disabilities. In addition, among the main tasks of social security of persons with disabilities recognized by the world community, namely the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers that prevent the provision of rights and the satisfaction of needs, including access to public and civil facilities, improvement, transport infrastructure, road service (hereinafter – objects of the physical environment), transport, information and communication, as well as taking into account individual capabilities, abilities and interests – to education, work, culture, physical culture and sports; health care; social protection; ensuring the implementation of an individual rehabilitation program for persons with disabilities; provision of adapted housing; promotion of social activities. The author focuses on the fact that the inherited system of social protection of persons with disabilities is largely based on the medical model of disability. In addition, it was established that the issue of transition from the medical model of social protection is currently being updated, and currently the priority tasks of social protection of persons with disabilities are their autonomy and social inclusion; departure from the medical model of protection; the need to «transpose» the system of services for persons with disabilities, directing them to the independence and atomization of the individual.

Neurodiversity: An Important Axis of Diversity in Ocean Sciences

Neurodiversity refers to variations in the human brain that affect information processing; it includes conditions, or “neurotypes,” such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia, among others. Neurodiversity can be conceptualized as significant differences in the ways that individuals process information; such differences may concern written or verbal language, sensory information, body language, or social interactions. These differences have been historically viewed within the medical model of disability, for example, as deficits in ability through a diagnosed condition, often associated with a goal of curing or managing the condition.

Promotion of Communication Access, Choice, and Agency for Autistic Students.

Families and professionals often consider augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) a "last resort" for persons with communication challenges; however, speaking autistic adults have reported that they would have benefited from access to AAC as children. This tutorial discusses the history of this "last resort" practice and its perpetuation within the medical model of disability. The tutorial focuses on communication access, choice, and agency for autistic students. We provide a brief overview of the AAC community and their preferred terminology, review the history of traditional approaches to research on AAC and autism, and then examine the relationship between disability models and ableism to views of spoken language as a priority of intervention. Studies on this topic are rare, and resisting ableism requires acknowledging and honoring disabled people's experiences and expertise. Therefore, we promote autistic expertise within the framework of evidence-based practice and discuss the experiences of autistic people and spoken language. Finally, we consider the role of the speech-language pathologist (SLP) in assessment and offer autistic-based strategies and recommendations for communication support. Speaking autistic students who could benefit from AAC may not have access to AAC due to the prioritization of spoken language and lack of awareness of the benefit of AAC. We recommend that SLPs and school-based professionals support and facilitate access, communicative choice, and agency by implementing multimodal communication strategies to include AAC use for autistic students regardless of their spoken language status. Promoting all types of communication and ensuring opportunities for communication across multiple modalities are paramount to a child's agency and self-determination, as is normalization of AAC.

Correlation between resilience and social support in mothers of young children with autism. Polish perspective

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to analyse the relationship between the level of resilience and the perceived social support, primarily emotional and instrumental varieties, among mothers of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).Participants and procedureThe study involved 143 individuals aged 26-51 years (M = 38.41, SD = 5.02), mothers of children with ASD. The Berlin Social Support Scales and the Resilience Scale were used as data collection tools.ResultsThere were statistically significant positive correlations between the perceived emotional and instrumental support and all the dimensions of psychological resilience.ConclusionsThe results are consistent with other results presented in a similar area, but the specific context of this study should be considered – in Poland, the medical model of disability still plays a dominant role, which means that little consideration is given to the needs and problems of families raising a child with disabilities.

Implementing Universal Design Principles in Music Teaching

Students with disabilities (SWDs) in the United States have a right to the least restrictive learning environment as enshrined in federal law. Until recently, conceptions about educating SWDs have drawn from medical models of disability (i.e., that the student must be accommodated to interact with the environment) rather than a social model of disability (i.e., that the environment can be cultivated for all kinds of individual needs). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework that music educators can use to shift their planning and instructional practices surrounding SWDs to encompass a social model of disability. Here, we define UDL principles, describe UDL implementation in music classroom contexts, and provide resources for further reading.

Inclusion of children with disabilities in qualitative health research: A scoping review.

Children with disabilities have the right to participate in health research so their priorities, needs, and experiences are included. Health research based primarily on adult report risks misrepresenting children with disabilities and their needs, and contributes to exclusion and a lack of diversity in the experiences being captured. Prioritizing the participation of children with disabilities enhances the relevance, meaningfulness, and impact of research. A scoping review was conducted to critically examine the participation of children with disabilities in qualitative health research. The electronic databases PubMed, PsychInfo, Embase, and Google Scholar were searched. Inclusion criteria included qualitative health studies conducted with children with disabilities, published between 2007 and 2020, and written in English. Articles were screened by two reviewers and the synthesis of data was performed using numeric and content analysis. A total of 62 studies met inclusion criteria. Rationales for including children with disabilities included child-focused, medical model of disability, and disability rights rationales. Participation of children with disabilities in qualitative health research was limited, with the majority of studies conducting research on rather than in partnership with or by children. Findings emphasize that children with disabilities are not participating in the design and implementation of health research. Further effort should be made by health researchers to incorporate children with a broad range of impairments drawing on theory and methodology from disability and childhood studies and collaborating with people who have expertise in these areas. Furthermore, an array of multi-method inclusive, accessible, adaptable, and non-ableist methods should be available to enable different ways of expression.

Understanding Importance of Mental Health and Therapy in India

The research article has focused on understanding the importance of Mental Health and Therapy in India from the aspect of laws and regulations such as Mental Health Policy 2014 (MHP 2014) and The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 (MHCA 2017) regarding psychological aspects. Primary reason for working on this aspect is that mental health is an integral part of the health of people that goes beyond providing therapy for mental illness by encouraging people for effective functioning and well-being through rehabilitation, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders. The themes that have helped in working on this aspect include Paradigm Shift in The Medical Model Of Disability, Cost of Estimation of Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 in India, Mental Healthcare is a Justiciable right, and, Mental health of Child and Adolescent is a matter of Concern. This study has also discussed every aspect of the result collected from the journal articles in minute detail. Keyword : Mental Health, Mental Health Therapy, Therapy, India, Mental healthcare in India, Mental Healthcare Act, Awareness, and psychological law

Pre‐service teachers' attitudes towards inclusion in Finland

The attitudes towards inclusion and the terms used related to special needs by pre‐service teachers in three Finnish universities were studied. Inclusion is the main educational policy in Finland, and special solutions are avoided when possible. With a questionnaire and a brief survey, data from 488 pre‐service teachers (PSTs) were collected and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results indicated that their attitudes towards inclusion were quite negative. Most of the positive attitudes, which were below the mean of the scale, were held by PSTs with special education as their major or as part of their studies, along with early education PSTs. The terms used for special needs were partly traditional, following the medical model of disability, but many students also referred to the structure of the support. The reasons for the negative attitudes and changes in the traditional names of special needs are also discussed.