Disability and Disabled

Medical Model of Disability

Conventionally, disability refers to an individual's physical or mental limitations. For example, the World Health Organization defines disability as any restriction or lack of ability (resulting from an impairment) to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being. With the deficiency construed as inherent, biological, and abnormal, the focal point was to repair or mitigate the functional limitation to the extent medically possible. Disability became primarily a challenge for the medical profession, to “cure” people of their physical and mental shortcomings.

Whereas many types of disability cause physical hardship and affect the quality of personal health, most disabilities are relatively benign and manageable with the proper supports. Although the provision of health care is a humane effort that is a foundation of civilization, the well-being of people consists of more than the functionality of their body parts. The narrow and heavy emphasis on the medical aspects of disability created a social understanding and attitude about people's well-being as diminished if they have a disability.

In cases where medical intervention into disabling conditions was limited by research, technology, capacity, or resources, frequently charitable or governmental institutions would attempt to bridge the gap by providing funds. For charitable organizations, a particularly effective means for collecting contributions was appealing to the public's sense of empathy and pity by portraying people with disabilities as victims of natural tragedy. Petitions for support from governmental institutions typically described people with disabilities as unfortunate wards of the state requiring care by society. Collectively, those approaches created a social mind-set that a physical or mental limitation condemns one to a lower standard and quality of life, and their recourse is dependence on society's largesse if they are not medically restored. Educational institutions and employers thus doubt their ability to successfully educate and employ people perceived as below the mainstream of society.

[Page 239]In response, people with disabilities often develop low self-esteem and low expectations for how they may assert themselves in life. Compounding this situation is the fact that members of their families or communities are likely not to share the same condition, removing them from any opportunity for a shared cultural identity with respect to a distinguishing characteristic. Unless people lay claim to a different model of experiencing their disability, they are more likely to become isolated, impoverished, undereducated, and out of place with society.

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