DEFINITIONS OF DISABILITY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
Undergraduate
Introduction
Take a look at the picture above. What do
you see? A disabled person? Probably. But why do you think the person is
disabled? Because of the wheelchair? Most likely. This can be called an
everyday life conceptualization of disability. The visible aid, in this case
the wheelchair, identifies the person as disabled. By “checking out” a person’s
functions and appearance, we identify some people as abled, others as disabled (Davis, 1995).
However, a relatively aware disability researcher can
actually see no less than five different definitions of disability in this
picture. Of course, s/he will see the same kind of conceptualization as the
layman. Within disability research, this type of disability definition is often
called a functional definition,
because it focuses on a person’s functional limitation (e.g., Abberley, 1991).
Second, the disability researcher also recognizes a definition that conceives
of disability as an interaction between an individual with an impairment and an
environment that lacks adaptations. This means that a person with an impairment
only finds him-/herself in a disabling situation when the surroundings are
inaccessible. In the picture, this is illustrated by the interaction
between the person in the wheelchair and the stairs. Thus, a disability is
nothing a person has per se, rather it is an interaction that appears in some
situations but not in others. This is often called a relative or environmental definition of disability, because
disability is seen as a relation between a person and her/his environment
(e.g., Söder, 1987). Third, the researcher will also identify a model according
to which the stairs themselves are thought to create the disability, without
any connection to the person. Disability, in this case, is the same as barriers
in society that keep people with impairments from fully participating in
society. This definition is often called the
social model of disability (e.g., Oliver, 1990). Furthermore, the researcher
will see that this person has been processed by the welfare state. S/he has a
mobility aid, the wheelchair, because s/he has been administratively defined (e.g., Stone, 1985) as disabled, i.e. s/he
is disabled because s/he is using an aid given to “disabled people”.