Social Model of Disability

This essay is going to focus on the social model of disability. Discussion on how the physical environment can affect the lives of people being cared for and those who support them. First of all I will discuss what the social model of disability is about, and how it helps disabled people to live independently. I will then go onto give a couple of examples from the block and show how their environments affect both them and their carer’s. In these examples I will focus more on positive differences it makes to their lives but I will also discuss some negative factors. The examples will be Veronica and David and The seven oaks scheme.
The Social Model of Disability is a model which was produced by disabled people as they felt that the Medical Model did not describe their personal circumstances of disability correctly, as well as not being very helpful in helping them to develop more independent ways of living. The model says that disability is caused by society and the way in which it is organised, rather than on the person’s impairment itself. The model looks into ways in which barriers can be removed that may restrict the life choices of the disabled person. Once the barriers have been removed, disabled people can live more independently and equally within society, giving them choice and control in their lives. These barriers faced are not always physical, they can come from discrimination and stereotype which are attitudes of society. These stereotyping attitudes can hinder people from having equal opportunities within society. A couple of examples of how the social model would help people as opposed to the medical model are as follows;
  * If a wheelchair user wanted to access a building which had a step at the entrance, a ramp would be placed at the entrance so as the wheelchair user had the required access to the building when they required it. The medical model would have very few solutions to this problem which would mean the person would therefore be...