The Medical Model

humiliated by the need to be carried in, or at the very least, prepare the internal location by moving furniture pre-arrival.

Where there is no physical access for all disabled citizens there is an unfair disadvantage, presenting disabled people with disproportionate challenges when trying to connect with mainstream society. Our present culture creates an atmosphere where disabled people feel displaced, creating a lack of belonging; subsequently, this produces individual identity challenges.

Within social identity theory, the emphasis has always been on how acute a sense of belonging is to develop a healthy sense of self 44 . Group identities are formed from common bonds; a healthy sense of self-esteem can be built on that. “It is crucial to remember ingroups are groups you identify with, and out-groups are ones that we don't identify with, and may discriminate against”45 . It has been found that it is not just in belonging to a group that boosts morale but also creates a social skills framework that can provide protection, for instance, supporting a particular football team creates a sense of pride and safety in being part of a collective 46 . Disabled people are often left out of mainstream collectives.

The Medical Model

44 Marilynn Brewer and Wendi Gardner, ‘Who Is This "We"? Levels of Collective Identity and Self Representations’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71.1 (1996) 83-93 < http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.1.83> [accessed 27 January 2021] 45 Carrie Foster, ‘Social Psychology – Discrimination-Organisation Development’ (Organisation Development 2013) <http://organisationdevelopment.org/social-psychology-discrimination/> [accessed 27 January 2021] (para. 15 of 22). 46 Graham M Vaughan, Henri Tajfel- Encyclopedia Britannica, (2020) <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Tajfel> [accessed 27 January 2021]

In society today, people are defined as disabled by the Medical Model. The Medical Model is defined by Devon County Council as a method of focusing on a person's impairment as the problem, and it is that that excludes an individual from mainstream society, they go on to state that this method is helpful to policymakers and legislators for reimbursing disabled people for their impairments or “what is wrong with their bodies47” . However, they acknowledge the negative message this model could be seen to perpetuate, “A disabled person could then think that their impairments automatically exclude them from participating in social activities. This subversive form of oppression can make people with an impairment less likely to challenge their exclusion from mainstream society.”48

Consider a person with an untreatable disabling diagnosis. The Medical Model is not always the most positive way to help an individual as it could reinforce the negative feelings and fears a person may feel because there is no medical answer. The Medical Model would not challenge the disabling barriers as it views the untreatable impairment as the deciding factor that restricts a person. People who choose to use the Social Model believe if the barriers have been put in place socially, they can also be removed.

47 Devon county council, Equality and Diversity: Medical model, [n.d.] <https://www.devon.gov.uk/equality/communities/disability/medical-model> [Accessed 12 January 2021] (para. 3 of 5) 48Devon county council, Equality and Diversity: Medical model, [Accessed 12 January 2021] (para. 3/4 of 5)