Later life and the social model of disability: a comfortable partnership?

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE OLDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Critical Gerontology ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Perspective

There has been very limited debate about the usefulness of links between later life and disability studies. The paper reviews the arguments for and against a closer association. The social model of disability makes crucial the separation of disability from impairment and shows that it is society that does the disabling. This is never so clear as in the case of housing policies for older people, the focus of this article. Older people suffer discrimination and have to submit to a medical model of later life if they receive health or social care services. The argument against an association between later life studies and disability studies is that later life is an immensely diverse experience, much of it nothing to do with disability. Moreover, some older people reject the negative connotation when later life is equated with disability. The paper argues, however, for a specific application of the social model of disability to the situation of older people with impairments who receive services. It also asserts that the social model of disability can be accommodated in critical gerontology and, in particular, in a post-modern perspective. The paper concludes with examples of the value of the social model of disability at both the policy and political levels.

Disability and later life

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-122
Author(s):  
Chris Gilleard ◽  
Paul Higgs
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
Adult Lives

This chapter highlights the importance of bodily impairment and infirmity in creating social divisions in later life. It begins with a consideration of what constitutes disability and impairment. It examines such distinctions and divisions in the light of the social model of disability and the distinction between ageing with disability and ageing into disability. While the former draws more easily upon the social model, the social identification with disability is more difficult for those whose adult lives have placed them in the position of being able-bodied adults. The confounding of age and disability represents not simply a social divide, but a divide within the person. While policies designed to serve older people as former workers who have become pensioners to some degree protects the financial interests of older disabled people, the absence of community framed by disability risks a greater social exclusion. The rise of policies designed both to encourage older people to be responsible for the success of their own ageing and to more strictly delineate distinctions (and entitlements) between the frail and the non-frail has sharpened this division. The difficulties are highlighted of aligning a social model of disability and the common interests of disabled people with a model based on frailty as an intersectional location fashioned around age disadvantage and disablement.

scholarly journals “This journey has definitely changed me”: An ethnographic narrative exploring disabled peoples’ lives through embodied experiences and identity negotiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Callan Sait
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Embodied Experiences

<p>Following calls from both disability studies and anthropology to provide ethnographic accounts of disability, this thesis presents the narratives of nine people living with disability, focusing on what disability means to them, how it is incorporated into their identities, and how it shapes their lived experiences. While accounts of disability from disability studies often focus on the social model of disability (Shakespeare 2006) and emphasise social stigma and oppression (Goffman 1967, Susman 1994), anthropological accounts often emphasise the suffering and search for cures (Rapp and Ginsburg 2012) that is assumed to accompany disability. Both approaches have their benefits, but neither pay particularly close attention to the personal experiences of individuals, on their own terms.  By taking elements from both disciplines, this thesis aims to present a balanced view that emphasises the lived experiences of individuals with disability, and uses these experiences as a starting point for wider social analysis. The primary focus of this thesis is understanding how disability shapes an individual’s identity: what physical, emotional, and social factors influence how these people are perceived – by themselves and others? Through my participants’ narratives I explore how understandings of normal bodies and normal lives influence their sense of personhood, and investigate the role of stigma in mediating social encounters and self-concepts. Furthermore, I undertake a novel study of the role of technology in the lives of people living with disability. My work explores how both assistive and non-assistive (‘general’) technologies are perceived and utilised by my participants in ways that effect not just the physical experience of disability, but also social perceptions and personal understandings of the body/self.  I argue that although the social model of disability is an excellent analytical tool, and one which has provided tangible benefits for disabled people, its political nature can sometimes lead to a homogenisation of disabled experiences; something which this thesis is intended to remedy by providing ethnographic narratives of disability, grounded in the embodied experiences of individuals.</p>

scholarly journals “This journey has definitely changed me”: An ethnographic narrative exploring disabled peoples’ lives through embodied experiences and identity negotiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Callan Sait
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Embodied Experiences

<p>Following calls from both disability studies and anthropology to provide ethnographic accounts of disability, this thesis presents the narratives of nine people living with disability, focusing on what disability means to them, how it is incorporated into their identities, and how it shapes their lived experiences. While accounts of disability from disability studies often focus on the social model of disability (Shakespeare 2006) and emphasise social stigma and oppression (Goffman 1967, Susman 1994), anthropological accounts often emphasise the suffering and search for cures (Rapp and Ginsburg 2012) that is assumed to accompany disability. Both approaches have their benefits, but neither pay particularly close attention to the personal experiences of individuals, on their own terms.  By taking elements from both disciplines, this thesis aims to present a balanced view that emphasises the lived experiences of individuals with disability, and uses these experiences as a starting point for wider social analysis. The primary focus of this thesis is understanding how disability shapes an individual’s identity: what physical, emotional, and social factors influence how these people are perceived – by themselves and others? Through my participants’ narratives I explore how understandings of normal bodies and normal lives influence their sense of personhood, and investigate the role of stigma in mediating social encounters and self-concepts. Furthermore, I undertake a novel study of the role of technology in the lives of people living with disability. My work explores how both assistive and non-assistive (‘general’) technologies are perceived and utilised by my participants in ways that effect not just the physical experience of disability, but also social perceptions and personal understandings of the body/self.  I argue that although the social model of disability is an excellent analytical tool, and one which has provided tangible benefits for disabled people, its political nature can sometimes lead to a homogenisation of disabled experiences; something which this thesis is intended to remedy by providing ethnographic narratives of disability, grounded in the embodied experiences of individuals.</p>

scholarly journals Daouidi v Bootes Plus SL and the Concept of ‘Disability’ in EU Anti-Discrimination Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delia Ferri
Keyword(s):  
Medical Model ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Attitudinal Barriers ◽  
Direct Discrimination ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
First Time

Daouidi v Bootes Plus SL is one the latest decisions in which the CJEU has been directly confronted with the concept of disability in the realm of EU anti-discrimination legislation. In particular, in this judgment, the Court attempted to identify when the dismissal of a worker due to temporary incapacity of an unknown duration may constitute direct discrimination on the grounds of disability. This decision appears to be significant in that, for the first time, the CJEU discusses the meaning of ‘long-term limitation’ for the purpose of Directive 2000/78. Although the Court treads carefully, it attempts to further elucidate and bring new elements to the definition of disability in EU anti-discrimination law. In spite of the fact that the Court is potentially widening the notion of disability, it appears, once again, quite reticent in its approach to the role of social, environmental and attitudinal barriers in disabling an individual, and remains somewhat ‘trapped’ in the medical model of disability. All in all, this analysis endeavors to highlight that the CJEU is struggling to move beyond a rhetorical recognition of the social model of disability and to apply this in practice.

“Almost Equal”: Confronting Norms and Normality in Experiencing Visual Disability

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052094536
Author(s):  
Hana Porkertová
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Everyday Experience ◽  
Visual Disability ◽  
Critical Disability Studies ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Czech Society

This article examines the everyday experience of visually disabled people with norms and normality and confronts it with three approaches discussed in disability studies: (i) the medical model, (ii) the social model, and (iii) critical disability studies. The most available model to the people in the study, as well as the most widespread approach in Czech society, is the medical model. However, the text shows that although other approaches are rather marginal, their logic is present in the everyday experience of the communication partners in the research. They can espouse the rigid, medical model, while, at the same time, confronting the construction of norms that both the social model and critical disability studies defy. This finding reveals both the normative and subversive character of disability, manifested in visually impaired experience.

scholarly journals The Social Model of Disability and Music Therapy: Practical Suggestions for the Emerging Clinical Practitioner

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gross
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Music Therapists ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Medical Model Of Disability ◽  
The Individual

More and more music therapists are becoming aware of the social model of disability. The social model of disability maintains that the locus of disability rests in the capacity for society to create barriers for people with physical or mental differences. Much of music therapy practice still invests in the medical model of disability, which maintains that disability is an inherent personal flaw in the individual which requires remediation. This paper argues that music therapy practice should adopt the social model of disability, and maintains that, in particular, music-centered music therapy is one theory of music therapy that resonates well with the social model of disability. The paper includes advice for the emerging music therapy clinician on how better to incorporate social model of disability perspectives in practice based on the work of previous scholars who have written extensively about the social model.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment from the Perspective of the Social Model of Disability: A Teaching Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mujde Koca-Atabey
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stanford Prison Experiment

This article aims to revisit the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) from the perspective of disability studies. The SPE is an issue that inevitably comes to light while teaching Social Psychology and how it contributes to a different course titled Psychological, Social and Cultural Aspects of Disabilities. The SPE presents a pioneering piece of research within Social Psychology. Similarly, the social model has reformed the concept of disability. The SPE and further studies demonstrate the importance of social forces in shaping human behaviour; i.e. they explore how good people might turn evil in particular circumstances. The social model of disability emphasises the role of social oppression in creating disability. As these two courses contribute to each other, it is discussed that an appropriate level of analysis within the discipline of psychology has much to contribute to the inherently interdisciplinary field of disability studies and vice versa. Interdisciplinary curriculums might be a step towards inclusive higher education.

The Disability Rights Movement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Scotch ◽  
Kara Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Medical Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Disability Rights Movement ◽  
Disability Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Conceptual Underpinning

This chapter provides an overview of the social movement advocating for disability rights, including its origins, goals, strategies, structure, and impact. The chapter’s primary focus is on the movement in the United States, although developments in other nations are also discussed. The chapter reviews the origins of the disability rights movement in the 20th century in response to stigma and discrimination associated with disabilities and the medical model of disability; addresses the movement’s advocacy strategies, as well as the social model of disability that provided the conceptual underpinning for its goals and activities; and describes how the major components of the movement, including cross-disability organization, were brought together through collaboration and the common experiences of disability culture.

Design to Break Barriers

2020 ◽  
pp. 351-360
Author(s):  
Jesse Rathgeber
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Iterative Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Instruments

In this experience, learners will develop a critical consciousness of barriers to participation rooted in ableism that are “baked into” instruments. This critical consciousness will assist learners in creating controllers with lower/no barriers for disabled persons/persons with disabilities. Learners will encounter concepts such as the “social model of disability” that come from Disability Studies scholarship in order to find and address disabling features of commercially-available instruments and to design new instruments, controllers, and practices that are anti-ableist. Through these experiences, learners will develop skills and knowledge related to using microcontrollers such as the Makey Makey and coding platforms such as Scratch through an iterative design process.

Disability: Physical Disabilities

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Ann Clute
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Physical Disability ◽  
Physical Disabilities ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Human Diversity ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
The Social ◽  
People With Physical Disabilities

Physical disability is traditionally defined by society's view of atypical function. The medical model offers information on factors contributing to physical disability, including genetics, injury, and disease. The social model of disability, however, defines the societal responses, not the physical differences, as disabling. People with physical disabilities have unique characteristics and experiences that fall into the broad range of human diversity. They belong as full participants in society. Social workers must focus on working in respectful partnerships with people with physical disabilities to change environments and attitudes. This will help build a just society that honors diversity. This entry addresses multiple factors that cause disability, from genetics to environment, as viewed through the medical model. The social model view of “the problem” is offered in comparison. It also introduces the wide diversity of people with physical disability. The entry discusses two major societal responses to physical disability. Environmental modification is one approach. A more recent approach, Universal Access, involves upfront design of environments to meet diverse needs. The final sections explain implications for social workers and lays groundwork for action. Creating access and respectful partnerships are foundations of the work ahead. It is difficult to define physical disability without situating the discussion in the model used to view and deal with human diversity. This discussion is based on the social model of disability, a view of disability that sees the environment as disabling, not the individual condition. Discussion of the medical model is offered as a contrast. (For a more complete discussion of disability models, see Mackelprang's Disability: An Overview in this publication.)

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