• The medical model of disability views disability as a ‘problem’ that belongs to the disabled individual. It is not seen as an issue to concern anyone other than the individual affected. For example, if a wheelchair using student is unable to get into a building because of some steps, the medical model would suggest that this is because of the wheelchair, rather than the steps.
  • The Social Model of Disability in contrast, would see the steps as the disabling barrier. This model draws on the idea that it is society that disables people, through designing everything to meet the needs of the majority of people who are not disabled.
  • The Social Model of Disability states that the poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion experienced by many disabled people is not the inevitable result of their impairments or medical conditions, but rather stems from attitudinal and environmental barriers within society.
  • This view recognises that disabled people have impairments but, unlike the Medical Model of Disability, maintains that the exclusion they experience is caused by society not their individual impairments.
  • Those environmental barriers inevitably include the teaching and learning of any HEI, including the physical layout of the University as well as the course curriculum itself.
  • The recent HEFCE review of policy towards disabled students (January 2010) made it clear that this is the model that British policy as it relates to supporting disabled students is based around.
  • However, some of the funding for disabled students – especially the Disabled Student’s Allowance – is more consistent with the medical than the social model of disability.
Last modified: Tuesday, 31 July 2012, 11:56 AM