Models of Deafness - Social Model

Social Model

The social model of deafness is a part of a more comprehensive and far-reaching social model of disability whose advocates seek to distinguish and distance from the medical model. The concept of social disability arose in large part from disabled people themselves, their families, friends, and associated social and political networks. Invoked here are professionals in the human services fields and the social sciences instead of physicians and the physical sciences. In defining disability, proponents of this model make two assertions concerning the view of disability as oppression:

1. first, that "the concept of disability is in part a historical product of social forces, not merely a biological necessity"; and
2. secondly, that "the disabled mode of living has value in its own right, even as the conditions that gave rise to the disability are condemned."

Disabled people affirm that the design of the environment often disables them. In better-designed environments, they are disabled less, or not at all. This affirmation arises in part from the understanding that while medical intervention can improve the health issues inherent in certain forms of disability, it does not address societal issues that prevail regardless of the extent or success of medical intervention. In conjunction with this view of changing the environment from a disabling to an enabling atmosphere, advocates of the social model persevere in the de-institutionalization of disabled persons by encouraging maximum integration with non-disabled peers, especially, but not exclusively, in the school environment.