Models of disability
[14] Disability acts as a means for abled people to feel good about themselves, through providing charity—without regard for whether this charity was wanted or effective.
[21] This model produces a power dynamic where an abled, authoritarian service provider acts on behalf of a passive, disabled client.
[16] For example, why design a costly and likely unsafe "stair-climbing wheelchair" when instead building codes should be changed so ramps and elevators are provided?
[9] In their Crip Technoscience Manifesto, scholars Hamraie and Fritsch further critique the implication "that disabled people are not already making, hacking, and tinkering with existing material arrangements".
[15] The biopsychosocial model was developed by mental health practitioners to recognize how the interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors can influence the outcome of any given medical condition.
[24][25] The model has been critiqued by both disability and medical communities as the psychological element is often overemphasized in clinical practice.
[24][26] For example, the biopsychosocial model has been used by physicians to dismiss myalgic encephalomyelitis and medically unexplained symptoms as psychosomatic in nature without adequate investigation to somatic causes nor consideration of social determinants of health.
The value of a disabled person is hence reduced to their ability to contribute to capitalism,[2] and is criticized for being dehumanizing and disconnected from the broader sociological forces.
[8] Although the economic model can be applied on an individual basis, the financial impact of disability is more often evaluated with respect to employers and nation-states.
[29][30] The eugenic model argues that the human race should take an active role in selectively breeding for desirable physical and mental characteristics.
Its end goal is a population composed solely of those who are "fit",[33] and has been used as justification for mass-sterilization and mass-murder of those seen as unfit.
[35] Disability activists and scholars stress that eugenic thought remains alive and active in society.
[38] Certain environmentalist discourses which focus on fixing "overpopulation" (rather than over-consumption) are criticized for often implying the "solution" is to rid the world of degenerate (disabled) people.
The end goal of the affirmation model is a world where disabled people have a collective identity which is a source of positive self-image and pride.
[50] For example, the human rights model aims to prevent legal discrimination in disabled people owning private property, and does not question the legitimacy of land ownership in settler colonial nations.
[50] The human rights model aims for disabled individuals to have complete autonomy over decisions affecting their lives.
[1] 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias The cultural model of disability, also known as the social construction model and the critical disability studies (CDS) model,[1] understands both disability and impairment as categories generated by academic knowledge, cultural media, and everyday discourse.
[17] This model uses a post-structural sociocultural lens to examine how the boundaries of disability shift across cultures and times.
[13] In the radical model, disability as a category is socially constructed, and was created for the purposes of capitalism and white supremacy.
[52] For example, how the modern concept of intelligence was created by race science to position Black people as inherently feeble-minded[34] and hence disabled.
Which in turn is important for understanding how special education in the United States was expanded after Brown v Board as a means to maintain racial school segregation.
[53] The radical model posits that disability cannot be neatly separated from other categories of oppression such as class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender.
[55] The concept of debility is used to foreground how colonial powers will subjugate their colonized populations through a chronic state of minority stress.
[59] Unlike debility, eco-social disabilities can be acquired in life-altering events, such as through preventable motor-vehicle collisions that occur as a result of unsafe transport systems.
[5] Its end goal, similar to the human rights model, includes sociolegal protections and benefits for disabled people.
[5] For example, one can understand chronically ill people through the medical model while also seeing them as a political minority which experiences discrimination.
[21] It exists in direct opposition to the expert/professional model: instead of experts dictating the lives of disabled people, they should instead act as professional advisors and providers of resources.
In the evolutionary model, hereditary disabilities which are more common than the basal mutation rate of one in a million persist evolutionarily because they provide enough benefit to offset their downsides.
The Hunter versus farmer hypothesis is a proposed explanation for the common prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
For example, Delayed sleep phase disorder, a condition where a person's circadian rhythm is substantially shifted from societal norms, may be an evolutionary advantage to ensure that there is always someone awake to keep guard during the night.
