As a wheelchair person, the opposite fashions that we’ve checked out would view me utilizing a wheelchair as the rationale that I couldn’t get right into a restaurant that has steps on the entrance for instance. However the Social Mannequin views the truth that the doorway to the restaurant not having a ramp because the factor that stops me from coming into the restaurant.
It is a very fundamental and sensible instance of a scenario and contrasting views from completely different fashions, however it may be used throughout any scenario the place an individual will not be given equal entry to a possibility.
Boundaries which can be in place may very well be bodily as the instance of a ramp, however these may also be attitudinal obstacles that deal with disabled individuals in several methods to non-disabled individuals and could be traced again to the opposite fashions above.
It’s additionally vital to recognise that a few of these obstacles could be internalised views and obstacles which have been ingrained in our views from a society and methods which can be basically constructed on views that don’t provide equitable entry.
Individual or situation centred language?
There are two most important ways in which incapacity is talked about in relation to individuals. It’s both situation centred language i.e. disabled individual, or individual centred language i.e. individual with a incapacity. Within the UK, there’s a far bigger lean to situation centred language whereas internationally it extra usually going to be individual centred language.
The rationale that folks typically select one piece of language over the opposite is the best way that they relate to the fashions that we’ve simply checked out.
With individual centred language, you’re figuring out the individual has the incapacity and so relates intently to the medical mannequin. Whereas the situation centred strategy of disabled individual is utilizing language that claims the individual is disabled, which could be taken to imply disabled by the issues round them. That is reflective of the social mannequin of incapacity.
The place are we now?
That is only a fast have a look at the extra standard fashions of incapacity. There are extra on the market and extra particulars out there on those I’ve talked about. I’d encourage you to look into it extra because it’s an interesting topic that actually offers a unique perspective on incapacity.
After I go searching on the world we stay in, I perceive that I’m talking from a degree of privilege in lots of respects so that is solely my private view, there are some actually constructive progressive adjustments taking place to create a extra equal society. That being mentioned, we’re undoubtedly nowhere close to the end line but and there are nonetheless many components of the outdated fashions that play a big half in issues I see each day.
This isn’t a motive to get disheartened. It’s a motive to step up our sport. In speaking about incapacity extra, we will educate and inform and in doing so begin to mobilise extra of the disabled neighborhood and allies.
