The Story of Different Minds  ·  Disability Rights and the Social Model

The Social Model

How disability rights shifted attention from bodies to barriers.

The person was not the only thing needing change.

Simple version

The social model argues that people are disabled by barriers in society as well as by impairment.

Why it matters

This shifted the question from what is wrong with this person to what is wrong with the environment.

Awareverse lens

Awareverse is deeply aligned with this shift.

Question to ask

When looking at the social model, ask: who had power, who was being labelled, and what would have changed if the human being had been seen first?

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