The Social and Medical Model of disability

What is the social and medical model of disability

The social model of disability identifies systematic barriers, negative attitudes and exclusion by society, showing the implication that society is involved in disabling people. While functional limitation may be caused by physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychological variations, they do not lead to disability up until society neglect its role to take into account of these factors and include people, their individual differences notwithstanding.

The social model affects daily practice as some people are unable to do activities such swimming if they pools are not specialised. Similarly, it is hard to employ people on wheelchairs when the workplace itself does not have wheel chair ramps. The same is evident in restaurants with no special facilities for the disabled.

The medical model of disability is largely a sociopolitical model where the disability or illness, resulting from physical condition, and which is intrinsic to the individual (it is part of that individual’s own body), may reduce the quality of life of the individual, thus, causing various disadvantages to the individual. The medical model tends to believe that the solution to treating or managing disability is reviewing the disability from a clinical perspective and learning how to control or alter its course. In extension, the medical model also believes that society can invest in resources and healthcare facilities that improve the functioning of people with disabilities. In addition, society need to allow the disabled to live a normal life. however, the professionalism of medical professionals and their responsibility to come up with the solutions is also central.

A medical model can affect daily practice more especially in cases where a person cannot work because of too much pain caused by their disabilities.