It is helpful to be aware that there have been two different approaches to disability. These are known as the medical model and the social model.
The Medical Model
The medical model of disability is informed by the individual perspective of a person’s physical or medical condition or impairment.
The medical model tends to individualise and medicalise disability issues. It generally does not question how society treats its disabled citizens. The person’s impairment is seen to be the problem and the approach taken is that disability can be ‘solved’ by finding a ‘cure’ or taking a medical or rehabilitative action.
Under this model, all people with impairments are different, and it is hard to generalise or to imagine ways of improving the situation of disabled people as a marginalised group. Many disabled people have internalised the negative message that all problems of exclusion stem from not having 'normal' bodies or minds. This can lead people to believe that their impairments automatically prevent them from participating in social activities.
The Social Model
The social model of disability holds that it is society which disables people with impairments, by the way in which it is organised and by the conventions and priorities it displays. For example, many buildings are inaccessible to people with impaired mobility, but this results from specific conventions and traditions in building design rather than being an inevitable consequence of mobility impairment.
The social model emphasizes that barriers to the full participation of disabled people are located in the way society is organised, and it challenges society to address and dismantle these barriers.
Most people with disabilities now understand disability through the social model and this is the approach taken by most disability groups throughout Ireland. For example, the Arts and Disability Forum, based in Northern Ireland, uses the following definition:
“a disabled person is someone who has a condition caused by a physical, mental or sensory impairment, which results in loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the community on an equal level with others, due to social or physical barriers”.
In their programmes to improve access to the arts and to artistic expression for disabled people, both Arts Councils are subscribing clearly to the social model. The Arts Councils intend for all people with disabilities, regardless of perspective, to find their own place in the arts.
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