Indigenous Health

What term to use?

People with disabilities have different preferences for language surrounding disability:

• Person-first language: "people with disabilities", "person with hearing loss"
• Identity-first language: "disabled people", "deaf person"
• language emphasizing agency: "functionally diverse"

Medical model:

The medical model views disability as a deficiency or abnormality, rooted in physical or psychological deficiency, where the individual is the locus of the problem, and a medical or technological expert is the change agent. In this model the target of the change effort are the individuals with disabilities and other's efforts to accommodate, with the goal being to diagnose, diminish, correct, and/or accommodate perceived deficits.

Social model:

The social model views disability as a difference rooted in a lack of accessibility, where social institutions and processes are the locus of the problem, and individuals with disabilities, disability advocates, social movements, institutional leadership are all change agents. In this model the target of change efforts are the institutional processes and protocols; social practices; societal norms and values, and the goal is to increase accessibility in all aspects of society and remove barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people.

Cultural model:

The cultural model views disability as valuable human diversity, rooted in ableism, lack of accessibility, attitudinal barriers, where social institutions and processes as well as ableist ideology are the locus of the problem, and disability culture, social movements, society are change agents. In this model, the target of change efforts are the institutions changing prevailing understandings of disability as a problem, and the goal is to reframe disability as a valuable way of being in the world.