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CPACC #2 - Theoretical Models of Disability I

Continuing with the CPACC certification notes!



Several issues will be dedicated to the Theoretical Models of Disability, which are frameworks for understanding disability, strengths and limitations. These models are: medical model, social model, biopsychosocial model, economic model, functional model, social identity or functional cultural affiliation model and charity model.



Medical model: Sees disability as a problem of the person, due to trauma, illness or similar. Disability management focuses on finding a cure that eliminates or reduces the effects of disability. It also has certain political overtones in terms of the economic investment of medicine in general.



It is also seen as making the person responsible for their case, i.e. if a person in a wheelchair cannot climb the steps, the problem comes more from the wheelchair than the stairs. (You can imagine what I think of this...)



Its strengths are that the medical benefits are critical to other models which I will explain later, while its weaknesses are that this model treats disability as an inherent or characteristic problem of the person, often underestimating the implications of non-accessible environments.







Social model: Sees disability as a socially created problem and its focus is on the correct integration of all individuals. In this model disability is not an attribute of the individual, but a complex collection of conditions created by society. It has a social, ideological and inclusive approach, which seeks large-scale social change, as it is everyone's responsibility to reduce all kinds of barriers.



Its strengths are that it focuses on accommodating the world to a broader spectrum of human ability and characteristics, while its weakness is that it can drift too far into the political realm, becoming contaminated by political interests and creating adversaries with the same goal but different ideology, blurring the true objective.



Biopsychosocial model: Basically a mix between these two models, not synthesising into a single aspect. Obviously I am much more in favour of this model, as it does not treat people with disabilities as their individual problem, nor does it focus its energies on political benefits.



I hope you enjoy my notes, next issue I will deal with the economic, functional, social identity and charity models <3