Developing a model of disability that focuses on the actions of disabled people
Abstract
Disabled people, writers on disability and disability activists stress the importance of disabled people being included in all aspects of society. I argue that a major omission from this inclusiveness, is that no current model of disability focuses on the impact of the actions of disabled people on disability. Disabled people are not passive bystanders, powerless to reduce the restrictions of disability. On the contrary, we are central to actively limiting its constraints. I develop a model of disability, called ‘active’, which focuses on the effects on disability of the individual and collective actions of disabled people. I describe published findings which indicate that engaging in self-help, using support groups and deploying assistive technology can all reduce the limitations of disability. Recent increases in the number of disability support groups and developments in assistive technology have substantially augmented the potential for disabled people to combat the effects of disability.Citation
Levitt, JM. (2017) 'Developing a model of disability that focuses on the actions of disabled people', Disability & Society, 32 (5) pp. 735-747Publisher
Taylor & FrancisJournal
Disability & SocietyAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2017.1324764Type
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Disability & Society on 25/05/2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1324764 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.ISSN
0968-7599ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/09687599.2017.1324764
Scopus Count
Collections
The following licence applies to the copyright and re-use of this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/CC BY-NC-ND 4.0