Being a person with disabilities or experiencing disability: Two perspectives on the social response to disability
Disability has a profound impact, both on those who live with it and on society that responds to the needs of people experiencing disability. Society has a primary obligation to respond to the impact of disability. Rehabilitation has an essential role to play here; but its relationship t...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Medical Journals Sweden
2017-06-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://www.medicaljournals.se/jrm/content/html/10.2340/16501977-2251
|
| Summary: | Disability has a profound impact, both on those who live with it and on society
that responds to the needs of people experiencing disability. Society
has a primary obligation to respond to the impact of disability.
Rehabilitation has an essential role to play here; but its
relationship to disability embodies a broader social ambiguity about
what it means to experience disability. On the one hand, disability
is a mark of a minority group persons with disabilities, which has,
historically, been socially disadvantaged. On the other, disability
is a matter of how health conditions and associated impairments
interact with the physical and social world to create limits on what
people can do or become. However, just as health problems are
universal over the life course, so too is disability. Everyone
experiences disability. This paper explores the historical
underpinnings of these two perspectives on disability, in particular
how they impact on rehabilitation practice and policy. After
surveying the social consequences of these perspectives, the paper
attempts to reconcile them in order to enhance the overall
effectiveness and relevance of the social response to disability. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1650-1977 1651-2081 |