inaccessible housing, poor lighting, poor seating, broken lifts or poorly managed street and public spaces’.5 These barriers operating in society are not solely restricted to physical barriers and can be attitudinal as well. Assumptions that people with certain impairments cannot, for example, work or live independently, or raise children – all stem from biased labels that limit persons with disabilities. Additionally, inadequate provision of supports operates is itself as a barrier, for example in considerations of decision-making capacity its effective exercise for persons with cognitive disabilities may require assistive technology or interpretation. Mike Oliver, a person with disability, was a pioneer of the disability rights movement in the 1980’s. A key advocate of the social model of disability, Oliver believed that the social model, in recognizing barriers as the cause of disability, is a powerful tool for personal and collective emancipation.6 Advocates for disability rights tend to prefer the social model, as it does not denigrate persons with disabilities’ agency and locates disability in societal failures. The social model encourages disabled people's right to independence and control over their life. Conclusion Michael Foucault presented the idea of heterotopia – the idea of making visible a different world within the existing one.7 Applying Foucault’s heterotopia to the world of disability rights results in the realization that society may need a model that envisages a non-disabling, fair and safe society to build into the fabric of the present society. The social model appears better aligned with this possibility. It encourages persons with disabilities to assume positions of power, to build support systems, inclusive environments, and shift those ‘fixed’ mindsets of the public. Therefore, support of the social model appears largely preferable, and its apparent enshrinement within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is promising. II.
Defining Disability in Irish Law
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'The Social Model of Disability' (Inclusion London, 2021) <https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/disability-inlondon/social-model/the-social-model-of-disability-and-the-cultural-model-of-deafness/> accessed 11 November 2021. 6 Mike Oliver, ‘Emancipatory Research: A Vehicle for Social Transformation or Policy Development’ (2002) 1st Annual Disability Research Seminar. 7 Arun Saldanha, ‘Heterotopia and Structuralism’ (2008) 40(9) Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 40(9) 2080.
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