1. Individual and Social Models of Disability 107 Disability in Society Week 2

2. Overview of session Recap of week 1 Understanding disability: individual and social models Review, questions and preparation for next week

3. Recap Impact of stereotypes and use of language Disabled people generally experience poorer access to life chances. This is often the result of discrimination. Social work(ers) have often been part of the problem for disabled people

4. A social model approach Why? Provides an alternative way of thinking about disability that challenges dominant approaches and established ways of practice Social work(ers) has frequently been part of the problem for disabled people, social model practice can be part of the solution GSCC specialist requirement

5. Models of disability Why a model? ‘A good model can enable us to see something which we do not understand because in the model it can be seen from different viewpoints… that can trigger insights that we might not otherwise develop’ (Finkelstein 2001:3)

8. Individual model of disability Umbrella for a variety of ways of thinking about disability – Individual – Lay beliefs – Medical attitudes Shared causal link impairment  disability

9. Individual model ‘Problem’ is located in the individual Personal tragedy theory (Oliver) Impairment causes disability Hegemony of care

10. Lay beliefs ‘common sense’ – but not necessarily thought out – views Rooted in historical, traditional and religious beliefs ‘better dead than disabled’ ‘them and us’ ‘Our disability frightens people. They don’t want to think that this is something which could happen to them. So we become separated from our common humanity, treated as fundamentally different and alien’ (Morris 1991:192)

11. Medical attitudes Distinguish ‘medical model’ from medical attitudes Doctors involved in the creation of impairment Alliances between doctors and disabled people Doctors actively seeking a reduction in non- medical oversight

12. World Health Organisation 1980 Impairment: Any loss or abnormality of psychological components or anatomical structure or functioning. Disability: Any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being. Handicap: A disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an impairment or disability, that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role that is normal, depending on age, sex, social and cultural factors, for that individual.

13. Individual model summary Individual problem Personal tragedy Appropriate responses are – Pity – Fear (of impairment/disability) – Cure or rehabilitation and care – Charity and compassion

14. Social model of disability In the broadest sense the social model of disability is about nothing more complicated than a clear focus on the economic, environmental and cultural barriers encountered by people who are viewed by others as having some form of impairment – whether physical, sensory or intellectual (BCODP 2002:1)

15. Paul Hunt ed. (1966) Stigma: The Experience of Disability ‘the problem of disability lies not only in the impairment of function and its effects on us individually, but also, more importantly, in the area of our relationship with ‘normal’ people’ ‘unfortunate, useless, different, oppressed and sick’

16. Paul Hunt ed. (1966) Stigma: The Experience of Disability ‘We are beginning to challenge society to take account of us, to listen to what we have to say, to acknowledge us an integral part of society itself. We do want ourselves, or anyone else, treated as second class citizens, and put away out of sight and mind’ (p158)

17. Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation ‘ Severely physically handicapped people find themselves in isolated, unsuitable institutions, where their views are ignored and they are subject to authoritarian and often cruel regimes. I am proposing the formulation of a consumer group to put forward nationally the views of actual and potential residents of these successors to the work house”

18. Fundamental Principles of Disability (UPIAS 1975) Disability is “the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by a contemporary social organisation which takes no or little account of people who have physical impairments and thus excludes them from participation in the mainstream of social activities”

19. Fundamental Principles of Disability Not a denial of impairment Disability is something imposed on top of impairments Instead focus is on social barriers “Society disabled people with different physical impairments. The cause, then, of disability, is the social relationships which take little or no account of people who have physical impairments” (Finkelstein)

20. Mike Oliver & the social model Way of translating UPIAS’ ideas into practice There was no amazing new insight of my part dreamed up in some ivory tower but was really an attempt to enable me to make sense of the work for my social work students and other professionals whom I taught (Oliver 1990)

21. An inability to walk is an impairment, whereas the inability to enter a building because the entrance is up a flight of stairs is a disability. An inability to speak is an impairment but an inability to communication because appropriate technical aids are not made available is a disability. An inability to move one’s body is an impairment but an inability to get out of bed because appropriate physical help is not available is a disability’ (Morris 1993:ix)

22. Disablement ‘a form of social oppression that operates at both the public and personal levels, affecting what people can do as well as what they can be’ (Reeve 2004:83) Psycho-emotional aspects of disablement: Responses to experiences of structural disability Social interaction with others Internalised oppression

23. Significance of the social model Starting point for action Reorientates thinking about who/what is the problem Resonates with the experiences of disabled people Simple, easily understood, rallying cry for action

24. Criticisms of the Social Model Disability in an individual experience best treated by medical and psychological treatments/rehabilitation Part of the problem, the influence of individual model thinking is clear in the implications of decades of policy and practice.

25. Criticisms of the social model Reflects its creators (white, male wheelchair users) – Considerable work to extend the relevance of the model to the experience of disabled women, people from minority ethnic communities, people with learning difficulties and mental health problems, older people and children – Canon of social model literature has developed to be much more inclusive

26. Criticisms of the social model Overplays social, economic and political barriers Excludes impairment? A response:  Psycho-emotional aspects of disablism and identity

27. Criticisms of the social model Inadequate as a social theory of disablement But a model is a practical tool for change and a starting point for theory

28. Criticism of the social model Its all very well in theory but it doesn’t work in practice Challenge for this (and other modules) is to help you develop ways of applying a social model approach to social work practice

29. A social model approach to communication: redefining the problem He can’t speak She wouldn’t be able to tell us what she wants He has a speech impairment He doesn’t understand what I ask him Morris (2003)

30. Video: Sociological Imagination Consider: Disability as ‘private trouble’ Disability is historically, geographically and socially situated In what ways might social attitudes and policies impact on disabled people’s ‘private’ lives?

31. Review impairment disability Individual model Social model Attitudes, barriers and discrimination disability Impairment effects

32. Follow-up/Suggested readings Follow up Thomas. C. (2004) ‘How is disability understood? An examination of sociological approaches’ Disability & Society 19 (6) 569-83.  Reeve, D. (2004) ‘Psycho-emotional dimensions of disability within relationships between professionals and disabled people Conference Paper  Other suggestions on the VLE.