Originally published here.

Introduction

This topic report focuses on disabled adults, children and young people and is written through the lens of the Social Model of Disability. Although, in line with legislation, this report forms part of the Manchester Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, the focus throughout is on identifying and removing disabling barriers present in society (rather than people’s impairments) and therefore it is more accurately described as being a Joint Strategic Barriers Assessment (JSBA) rather than a needs assessment. The report describes to all commissioners and planners of public services (not just health and social care), why a barrier removal approach based on the Social Model of Disability should be used.

It provides evidence that will enable commissioners to work with disabled people to plan and develop better, more inclusive programmes that recognise and remove disabling barriers from the outset. Most local and national research data on disabled people tends to follow a deficit-based, medical approach that is focused on the details of individual impairments, rather than on disabled people’s lived experience of social barriers.

Research methodologies also draw on very different definitions of disability and data collection is often very limited and, as a result, there may be gaps in terms of the availability of reliable evidence about the impact of social barriers on disabled people and their solutions. This report draws on some broader statistical evidence from non-social model research approaches and methodologies but this is not necessarily an endorsement of such approaches.

What is the Social Model of Disability? Manchester City Council adopted the Social Model of Disability in 1991, the first local authority in the country to do so. The Social Model of Disability was developed in the 1970’s by disabled people as an alternative to the prevalent medical model. It is based on the premise that people with impairments encounter barriers that have been created by a society which has not taken disabled people into account when designing and delivering services. It is these socially constructed barriers which disable (i.e. exclude) people, not their impairments.

The Social Model of Disability is all about recognising potentially disabling barriers, and then taking action to remove them. Commissioners of services for disabled people, whether specialist or mainstream have traditionally used the medical model of disability (also known as the ‘individual’ or ‘deficit’ model).

It views an individual with an impairment as the ‘problem’ and therefore ‘in need’ of modifications or support to ‘cure’ or ‘fix’ that individual problem. It is that person who doesn’t fit in with existing policies, procedures or practices. The medical model is still commonly used in health and social care settings and when assessing benefits, where only aspects of a person are considered, rather than identifying structural barriers to their full participation in society and dealing with people holistically.

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