Originally published on LinkedIn on September 30, 2020
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. While there are many concrete steps employers can take to hire disabled people and ensure that we have the accessibility we need, one of the first steps is better understanding disability and the issues disabled people face in their lives and employment needs.
Models of disability attempt to explain how individuals and society perceive disabled people. Understanding how society perceives disability and disabled people can provide insight into the concerns and needs disabled people have.
There are two key models of disability that are most commonly discussed. These are the medical model and the social model.
The Medical Model
The most common model of disability is the medical model. The medical model assumes that disabled people want and need a “cure” or that we want to be abled. The problem according to the medical model is disability and disabled people.
While many people with chronic illness and chronic pain want solutions for their illness and pain, there are many people who like their disabilities and do not want to be “fixed.”
In particular, autistic people and other neurodivergent disability advocates often consider their disabilities to be central to who we are. Therefore, if we were to be “cured” according to the medical model we would be entirely different people. The concept of “curing” disabled people is typically presented according to the wishes of other people and institutions such as doctors, teachers, family members, hospitals, schools, employers, and non-profit charities led by abled people.
Similarly, many physically disabled peopled also see our disabilities as part of our identities and have created community and culture around being part of specific groups, such as Deaf culture, or more broadly what is referred to as Crip culture, reclaiming words that have been used to insult and subjugate disabled people.
The social model proclaims that there is nothing wrong with disabled people’s bodies or ways of being.
The Social Model
Since the medical model has been so damaging to disabled people, disabled people, including activists and educators, have popularized the social model of disability, which explains that people are disabled because the physical and social environments create barriers for disabled people. These barriers include the physical and built environment, policies, and attitudes, which exclude disabled people from full participation in society including employment. The social model proclaims that there is nothing wrong with disabled people’s bodies or ways of being; instead, society must provide inclusion and accessibility.
Other Models
However, the medical and social models are not the only models of disability. While the medical model is harmful to disabled people, there are several other models of disability that also consider disability and disabled people as a problem and have contributed to the stigma around disability and harm to disabled people. These include the religious, charity and economic models.
The religious model considers disability punishment and on this basis justifies stigma and exclusion of disabled people from family life, friendship, romantic relationships, and further participation in society.
The charity model considers disabled people victims and on this basis justifies seeing disabled people as worthy of pity and exclusion. Disabled people who do common tasks are labeled as “inspirational.” People who “help” disabled people, often through exploitative relationships, are considered “saints” and criticism of them is usually vehemently rejected.
The economic model considers disabled people burdensome. If they are not able to work, then they are considered worthless. If they need to work part-time or make other adjustments in their work, then they are considered less valuable than abled people. The economic model is related to the charity model in that if a disabled person is not earning an income, then their source of support is often seen as charity. The economic model is commonly used by governments and businesses to evaluate disability policies and insurance through cost-benefit analysis, which is often considered a dehumanizing approach.
The harmful models of disability are countered by approaches to disability that, like the social model, recognize the inherent worth and dignity of disabled people. These include the human rights and identity models.
The human rights model requires solutions that provide accommodations and acknowledges a broad array of rights including civil, political, economic, social, cultural and identity rights. The human rights model also includes concrete policy proposals.
The identity model affirms group identity as a disabled person and the shared experiences of belonging to the group (i.e., similar experiences of adaptation and marginalization). Emphasis is placed on individual experience, which allows for acknowledgement that some disabled people want a “cure” (i.e., would prefer not to have a chronic illness, injury or chronic pain), as well as different personal preferences about identity-first language (e.g., disabled person, autistic person or saying “I’m autistic”) vs. person-first language (e.g., person with a disability). Most surveys indicate those who have access to disabled community prefer identity-first language. However, everyone should respect individual self-referential language preferences.
These models have helped disabled people advocate for themselves, develop community, access public spaces, obtain housing, education, medical care and more.
Beyond Models
While early disability activism has focused on the human rights model, an outgrowth of the social model, current activism focuses on disability justice.
Disability justice is led by queer people of color. Disability rights advocacy was focused primarily on rights belonging to disabled people and centered the needs of white, cisgender men. Founders of disability justice, such as Patty Berne, stress this point noting that, “Disability rights doesn’t challenge any structural oppression except for disability. It invisibilizes many people’s lives.” This is exemplified by the lack of representation in media of LGBTQ BIPOC people, especially Black trans disabled people and queer Indigenous people who are often at the forefront of mutual aid initiatives. Disability rights movement leadership and representation of disabled people has not made the lived reality of LGBTQ BIPOC disabled people visible.
Disability justice is founded on 10 Principles, the second of which notes that it centers the leadership of the most impacted, which is queer BIPOC, and the first principle recognizes the importance of intersectionality.
Disability justice powerfully contradicts the premise of the economic model by eliminating the illusion of independence. As Mia Mingus explains, “I am not fighting for independence, as much of the disability rights movement rallies behind. I am fighting for an interdependence that embraces need and tells the truth: no one does it on their own and the myth of independence is just that, a myth.”
Disability justice helps us understand that there are many needs that are accepted in society. Whether it is the commonplace nature of wearing eyeglasses or the expectation that bathrooms provide hand soap, we have many needs and expectations that are provided daily. Accessibility recognizes that the needs of disabled people should be commonplace expectations that are met daily. Disability justice recognizes that the needs of disabled people aren’t yet socially acceptable and provides the framework to change that.
What You Can Do
Working toward disability justice takes all of us. Below are some steps individuals can take toward this goal.
Examine the assumptions you make about disabled people. How have these models influenced you? If you are disabled, external ableism can easily become internalized ableism. Identifying the ways you’ve internalized ableism is especially important.
Learn about ableist language and identify the language you want to change. Here’s my favorite resource on this topic from Lydia X. Z. Brown and an article from Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg about why it matters.
Make your social media more accessible. Here’s some accessibility tips.
Read about disability justice
Sins Invalid (founding group of disability justice provides many resources, including a blog, film and curriculum)
Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People by Sins Invalid
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Leaving Evidence, A Blog by Mia Mingus
"We cannot fight for liberation without a deep, clear understanding of disability, ableism and disability justice."
~ Mia Mingus
Cover Image & Description
Photo by Chona Kasinger for AffectTheVerb.com. Six disabled people of color smile and pose in front of a concrete wall. Five people stand in the back, with the Black woman in the center holding up a chalkboard sign reading "disabled and here." A South Asian person in a wheelchair sits in front.
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