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Socio-political - time in the hospital, interaction with social services and foster care, issues with lockdown policies, 'mild' diagnosis could reduce care

Community - neighbours don't like him, noise complaint

Organisational - delay in health plan, mainstream primary school (school want to give support)

Interpersonal - avoids playtime, separated from dad and step-dad, strained relationship with mother

Individual - 6, male, happy, bad with expression, short attention span, doesn't like noise or social situations, delayed academic development

1. Foster care, mainstream school, family instability and history

2. School is trying to support him, mother is involved and trying to do what's best for him, foster care

3. Noise reduction in class, specialised educational care (school?), at home specialised care to support mother, therapy to help process/ express emotions

4. Intellectual disability assessment

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Socio-political:  reasonable adjustments given by her universities.

Community: collaborative design sessions, societies that she had joined.

Organisational: for exams: noise-cancelling room and headphones, adaptations for group works and presentation, assessments material before sessions, extensions.

Interpersonal: tensions with living with others who are noisy, misconception from one flatmate, two friendly flatmates. Her personals tutor challenges to help her.

Individual: difficulties with time management, working memory, and emotional regulation, struggled with co-occurring mental health challenges, including heightened anxiety and sleep difficulties

2.  Identify Ushas Risk Factors? Her environment can cause her to feel overwhelmed. Not the appropriate and right personal academic help from a personal tutor. No access to quick counselling intervention.

3.      Identify Ushas Protective Factors? Her reasonable adjustment and societies that she joined. The two friendly flatmates.

4.      What interventions can you put in place to help reduce the impact of risk factors on Usha? She can be accommodated in a quiet environment with new flatmates. She needs a personal tutor that has more knowledge on her disabilities or give training and knowledge to the personal tutor.. Let her have access to a wellbeing team of the university or inform her on the contact numbers such as 111 if urgent support is needed for her mental health.

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- Individual – after experiencing academic burnout, sensory overwhelm, and social anxiety during her A levels.

- Interpersonal - One flatmate has questioned whether Usha is "really autistic" because she attends university and performs well academically (misconception of autism) Good relationship with tutor. Parents are apprehensive about diagnosis perhaps due to cultural factors.

-Organisational - The tutor is unsure how to challenge colleagues’ practices or navigate institutional processes to secure consistent accommodations for Usha.

-Community - limited opportunity to feel comfortable not masking autistic traits.

- Policy / societal – Usha does receive reasonable adjustments but still struggles at times.

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2. Risk factors:

a) range of hypersensitivities

b) parental issues- absent father, potential exposure to violent behaviour.

c) communication difficulties- issues with social situations (unclear what friendship circle is like but there could be potential issues here)

d) delays in academic achievement

e) going into foster care (change in environment, potential issues in foster care)

f) step father leaving (unclear what relationship was like but this could have affected jayden)

3. protective factors:

a) differentiated program with support

b) education care health plan (when this is completed)

c) school is trying to get 121 support for jayden

4. interventions to reduce impact of risk factors:

a) potentially noise cancelling headphones for noise sensitivity. some work could be done with jayden to find out what kinds of textures and noises affect him the most.

b) family therapy, parental programs (support groups)

c) 121 support, this could also help academic delay.

d) push forward education care health plan.

5. assessments:

a) autism assessment? (hypersensitivities)

b) dyslexia- cognitive development- Wechsler intelligence scale.

c) communication- language development- clinical evaluation of language fundamentals.

d) ADHD? (lack of concentration)

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The author explains different perspectives for understanding disability.

Cite this

Olkin, R. (2022, March 29). Conceptualizing disability: Three models of disability. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psychology-teacher-network/introductory-psychology/disability-models

How people think about disability affects how they feel about disability. Although people have various individual perspectives on disability, these viewpoints can be categorized into three overarching models of disability-moral, medical, and social (Olkin, 2002). Each model addresses the perceived causes of disability, appropriate responses, and deeper meanings.

Moral model

In the moral model, disability is seen as having meaning about the person's or the family's character, deeds, thoughts, and karma. From this perspective, disability can carry stigma, shame and blame, particularly if the disability is seen as a mark of wrongdoing. Alternatively, disability can be seen as a sign of honor, faith or strength. For example, someone who is religious may believe they (or their family member) were chosen to have a disability due to God's faith in them. Disability may also be perceived as a positive reminder of having survived a life challenge (e.g., a polio epidemic, or stepping on a land mine). The moral model is very prevalent worldwide and is often depicted in the media. For example, some movies use a physical disability to show evil. In contrast some movies portray the disabled person as one who goes beyond usual human levels to achieve unique goals, such as a wheelchair user who climbs El Capitan in Yosemite.

Medical model

In the medical model, disability is perceived as an impairment in a body system or function that is inherently pathological. From this perspective, the goal is to return the system or function to as close to "normal" as possible. The medical model suggests that professionals with specialized training are the "experts" in disability. Persons with disability are expected to follow the advice of these "experts." The language of the medical model is clinical and medical (e.g., left hemiplegia; partial lesion at the T4 level). This view is one that can sometimes be seen within the fields of health, mental health, and education.

The medical model of disability often is depicted in movies through a plot in which a disabled person is depressed and hopeless, but through friendship with an able-bodied person the disabled person learns to embrace life. A reverse twist on this is the idea that disabled people show able-bodied characters how to be better people.

Social model

In the social model, disability is seen as one aspect of a person's identity, much like race/ethnicity, gender, etc. From this perspective, disability is believed to result from a mismatch between the disabled person and the environment (both physical and social). It is this environment that creates the handicaps and barriers, not the disability. From this perspective, the way to address disability is to change the environment and society, rather than people with disabilities. Negative stereotypes, discrimination and oppression serve as barriers to environmental change and full inclusion.

Movies depicting disability from a social model are more apt to have multiple disabled characters who form bonds, learn, and grow, without dependence on an able-bodied character. Other films show disabled characters more realistically: in the context of loving families who are not 'burdened' by the disability; in a society that discriminates; as activist trying to change laws.

What is your model?

Although students have a tendency to see one model as superior to the others, there are some potential benefits and costs to all of these perspectives. The moral model can bring shame, but also renewed faith. The medical model has spurred tremendous advances in rehabilitation but is paternalistic. The social model fosters community, but systemic ableism can be overwhelming. Probably most people have beliefs in more than one model. But it is hard to know, since currently there is not a well-established measure of the models. More data are needed from disabled persons to get their perspective on the costs and benefits of their particular model of disability.

Follow-up

Find a movie with one or more disabled characters, then answer a few questions: (a) Which model(s) did the disabled character hold? (b) What was the director's perspective on disability? (c) What was the main message about disability in the movie?

About the author

Rhoda Olkin, PhD, is a distinguished professor in the clinical PsyD program at the California School of Professional Psychology, San Francisco Bay Area campus.

References

Olkin, R. (2002). Could you hold the door for me? Including disability in diversity. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8, 130-137.

Contact Education

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Conceptualizing disability: Three models of disability

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Although people have various individual perspectives on disability, these viewpoints can be categorized into three overarching models of disability-moral, medical, and social.

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Models of disability and the categorisation of children with severe and profound learning difficulties: Informing educational approaches based on an understanding of individual needs

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Aim:This paper will explore the influence of dominant models of disability on the categorisation of children with severe and profound learning disabilities.Rationale:Whilst the medical model continues to characterise views of disability within medical settings, the adoption of the social model in education has led to a reluctance to use labelling (Norwich, 2002) and to the application of pedagogy which adheres to common ‘age and stage’ conceptions of progress (Lawson et al., 2005).Findings:The reticence to refer to a child’s diagnosis exacerbates a lack of understanding of the development of this group of learners and prevents the level of assessment necessary to inform robust individual education plans and child-centred teaching approaches. More recent approaches to curricular practice (Lacey, 2011) aim to achieve a balance between understanding a child’s individual needs and providing a range of learning experiences. This is consistent with the recently proposed ‘cultural-historical model of disability’ (Bottcher & Dammeyer, 2016) which attempts to realign the social and medical model of disability by reducing ‘developmental incongruence’ – a mismatch between a child’s impairment and proposed learning activities.Conclusions:The paper outlines how the application of this model may be facilitated by educational psychologists to ensure that information about a child’s ‘label’ is used positively, as a means of providing further information about a child’s cognitive profile and increasing the likelihood that learning activities will optimise outcomes.

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The disability rights Rights are the things everyone should be allowed to do like have a say, or go to school. movement follows the ‘social’ model of disability.Model means the type of disability. Easy read

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Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities

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Using the social model of disability as a theory instead of the medical model can change people's outlooks on what other people can achieve, and how organisations and our environments should be structured. People who follow this way of thinking will be able to see past the outdated policies and procedures that can be a barrier to people with learning disabilities leading full and active lives.

Despite much progression in the public perception of people with learning disabilities, there is still some stigma about what people with learning disabilities can and can't do. Using the social model of disability, there should be no limits set on what people with learning disabilities can achieve; the key is finding the support which they need to enable them to achieve these things.

The academic Tom Shakespeare writes on the need to reject treating the social model as a 'sacred cow' that must not be challenged, instead proposing a movement towards a medical and social continuum, with the central argument that as we are all 'impaired' in some manner, it is not the core component of disability. The impact of the body on one's life is thus included, without needing to divide between 'disabled' and 'non-disabled' people.

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Using the social model of disability as a theory instead of the medical model can change people's outlooks on what other people can achieve, and how organisations and our environments should be structured. People who follow this way of thinking will be able to see past the outdated policies and procedures that can be a barrier to people with learning disabilities leading full and active lives.