Key Topics
Before discussing the social model, we need to first ask the question: what constitutes a disability?
I had an incident not too long ago. My iPad, the device I use for almost everything, stopped working. One moment everything was fine. I was watching some videos, listening to an audiobook, doing some writing, and other such tasks. The next moment it was dead and not responding to the charger.
I simply had nothing else to do. I cannot use pen and paper to write, I can’t read off a physical book, and apart from my phone there were no other devices in the house that I could easily use without set up. I felt helpless. Incapable. I felt… disabled.
Oh wait, I am disabled.
It’s moments like these that get me thinking about the true complexities of disability. Moments that make me consciously acknowledge that I am in fact disabled.
My disability is not something that is constantly at the forefront of my mind, even though I do a lot of things differently to a sighted person.
I don’t think about my disability when I’m using a screen reader, or when recognizing objects by touch rather than by sight. That is simply how I do things. Rather, it is when I am faced with something that is inaccessible to me that I remember that I am in fact disabled. And because we live in a sighted world, a lot of things are inaccessible.
So, what constitutes a disability? Is it the impairment itself? Or the inaccessible world that makes those impairments disabling in the first place?
Disability is a combination of various factors. Our physical and mental impairments could be limiting, but arguably the greater limitations are the barriers placed by society and the environments that exclude us. This is referred to as the social model of disability.
What is the social model?
The social model is a way of viewing disability that suggests that disabled people are not disabled by their impairments, but rather by inaccessible environments and people’s attitudes towards disability.
The social model moves the focus away from trying to cure and fix disability and instead proposes that impairments wouldn’t be so disabling if the environment and society were more accommodating towards disability.
This model is in opposition to the medical model which suggests that disabled people need to be cured or fixed in order to be able to function in society.
If a wheelchair user cannot navigate a place due to stairs, the medical model says that this person is wheelchair-bound, therefore they need a cure so they can walk and be able to move around. The social model however says that the problem is not the wheelchair user, but rather it’s the lack of ramps.
Why does this matter?
The lens through which we choose to view disability greatly informs what solutions we come up with. If we use the medical model, we would seek out cures. How to make a wheelchair user walk? How to make a blind person see?
This is a pretty pervasive view in our society. “Is there a cure?” is a very common question we are asked, because a lot of people, even subconsciously, believe that we can’t live a proper life with our disability.
The medical model ignores the simple problem that for a lot of us, there is no cure, and we are not actively seeking one. Some of us don’t even want one. Because we are not going to spend our lives waiting for a cure that might not even come. Furthermore, finding and getting a cure is expensive, and not even guaranteed to work.
The social model offers more realistic solutions, and it helps more people. It’s easier to have books available in different formats, such as braille and digital, than it is to find a cure for every blindness-related disease. The same is true for other disabilities. So much money goes into finding cures for disability, which ultimately will only help a small number of people. We can instead use that money to make buildings more accessible, to invest in accessible technology, and way more that could help a far larger percentage of the disabled community. The social model offers a more productive approach.
Going back to my example from the beginning. If all devices were equipped with assistive technology that I could instantly use, it wouldn’t be an issue for me if my device momentarily stopped working. I simply would be able to pick up any other device and use it, which is something sighted people do without a second thought.
It is important to note however that the social model is not perfect. Even if a disability is accommodated for a hundred percent, it doesn’t change the fact that the disability still exists, so it shouldn’t be the sole way we view disability
. As I always mention, if a disabled person uses the medical model and is seeking a cure then there is nothing wrong with that. Adopting the social model does not mean no cures should be sought out. The social model is however, in my opinion, more productive and beneficial for the disabled community as a whole, and is a better lens to use when looking for solutions.
As always, the most important thing is to listen to the people you are trying to help. Listen to what we actually want, and for most of us, that’s an accessible environment and a society in which we are not seen as lesser. It is possible for our impairments to be less disabling, and most of the time that does not involve fixing the impairment.
