Models of

disability
Introduction

Models of disability are tools for

defining impairment and, ultimately, for
providing a basis upon which government
and society can devise strategies for
meeting the needs of disabled people.
Models of disability
1. Charity Model
2. Bio-centric Model
3. Functional Model
4. Medical Model
5. Social Model
6. Right based Model
7. Rehabilitation Model
8. ICF Model
 Charity Model

 This model treats people with disabilities as helpless

victims needing ‘care and protection.’
 This model relies largely on the good will of
benevolent humanitarians for custodial care of the
disabled.
 Disability was perceived as a disqualification and
perhaps for this very reason the expression ‘invalid’
became synonymous with disability.
 Bio-centric Model
 The bio-centric approach to disability emphasizes the biological
origin of a disabling condition, and focuses on disease, disorder,
physical or mental characteristics that is viewed as aberrant or
abnormal but which may be prevented through medical intervention.
 The aims of intervention in this model are two fold, one, to prevent
disability & second to bring the individuals embodied experience in
line with conventional standards of normal.
 The limitations of the bio-centric model are evident as it aspires to
address problems of inequality by preventing or minimizing the
existence of difference by imposing the majority norm of behaviour
on inherently different minorities.
 Functional model

• In comparison to the bio-centric model, which tries to

prevent or cure the Impairment, the functional model tends
to treat the perceived incapacity of the disabled individual
through services and supports which are aimed at making
the individuals as functional as possible.

•This involves compensation rather than cure, in order for

people to live that are as normal as possible.

•The positive contribution of this model can be seen in

the development of assistive technologies and
specialized services.
• Such an understanding has been instrumental in
establishing rehabilitation services for person
with disabilities throughout the world.

• Services such as physiotherapy and occupational

therapy including training in daily living skills, pre-
vocational skills, Functional assessments,
counseling and job training are some important
elements of Prevalent rehabilitation programmes.
 Social model
 This model implies that the removal of the
attitudinal, physical and institutional barriers will
improve the lives of disabled people,

 giving them the same opportunities as others

on an equitable basis.

 The strength of this model lies in its placing the

onus upon society and not the individual.
 Medical Model

 The medical model comes about as a modern

model.
 This model was developed in the 19th century.
 The individual with a disability is in the sick role
under the medical model.
 The medical model holds that disability results
from an individual’s physical or mental limitations
and is largely unconnected to the social or
geographical environments.
 It is sometimes referred to as the biological-
inferiority/functional limitation model.
 Rights based model

 In more recent times, however, the notions of

‘disability ’ has come to be conceptualized as a
socio political construct within a rights based
discourse.

Rehabilitation model
• This is an offshoot of the medical model, which
regards the disability as a deficiency that must be
fixed by rehabilitation professionals or other
helping professionals.
 ICF model

 ICF is a revised version of the ICFDH (WHO 1980).

 The paradigm shift from the medical to social and
bio-psycho-social models of disability is reflected in
the evolution of the ICF (WHO, 2001).
 It goes beyond medical perspective and includes a
societal and environmental perspective.
 Oriented toward human functioning and health.
 ICF is based on bio-psycho-social model of
functioning and disability.
 The ICF is “a classification of human functioning and
disability” (WHO, 2001, p.21). Initially drafted as the
International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities,
and Handicaps (ICIDH) by the World Health Organization
(WHO, 1980), the ICF was intended to complement its
sister classification system, the ICD (WHO, 1992),
currently in its tenth revision. The ICD classifies mortality
and morbidity, whereas the ICF classifies functioning,
disability, and health, and they are designed to be used
together.

 The ICF was endorsed for international use by the 54th

World Health Assembly in 2001, and was subsequently
accepted by 191 countries as the international standard
to classify health and health-related states (Bruyère &
Peterson, 2005).
Reference

 http://www.copower.org/leader/models.htm
 http://www.canchild.ca/en/canchildresources/internati
onalclassificationoffunctioning.asp