Models of Disability Flashcards
In colonial/pre-industrial times, how did people conceptualize disability?
It was very black and white. Typically people were hidden away and the responsibility was with the family to take care of the person.
In colonial/pre-industrial times, how did disability impact the household?
Major implications for income due to manual labour demands the lifestyle in those days
What perspected was introduced in the 19th century, and who introduced this perspective?
Scientific perspective
Introduced by Benjamin Rush
Describe the scientific perspective
What related to body structure
Defined the therapeutic value of work i.e. when you do something there is a better health outcome associated
Describe the changes in disability models in the 20th century and during the World Wars
- People were “moved from the attic to the asylum”
- Many people lived in asylums their whole lives
- World wars created another huge amount of “very deserving disabled people”
- Since so many men were taken into the military, many women and people with disabilities were recruited for jobs the men had previously
- this planted the seed of the advocacy movement
What did “Rosie the Riveter” do during WW2?
She planted the seed for advocacy for women and people with disabilities to work
What happened when people returned from war after WW2?
Jobs were taken from women and people with disabilities
After WW2, what happened in terms of disability advocacy
- Way more support for PWD
- Advocacy movement to create more community supports and get people out of institutions (Independent Living Movement)
What is an issue we face today in terms of medical ethics?
Resource distribution - who gets what and how are those choices made
Name 3 major models of disability
- Moral model
- Medical/disease model
- Social/minority model
How would you describe the moral model?
Very black and white
- disability is seen as being caused by deity
- a form of divine retribution
- “the cause [of disability] is then just wrong doing but not wrong living ; more deeply still, wrong being”
How would you describe the medical model?
- Pathology/disease oriented
- Locates the problem within the disabled person
- If we fix the person then we can fit them into the existing system
How could you describe the social/minority model?
- Acknowledges the person, society, and environment
- The problem is the disabling world, not the person
Where does OT fit in terms of medical models?
Somewhere between medical and social models….
We use critical disability theory
