Medical Model vs. Social Model Simplified
When I was preparing for last week’s class, I was struck by the simplification of these terms. I wanted to share with everyone the information I discovered at the British Film Institute site.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/disability/thinking/medical.html
Diagram showing the effects of “medical-model” thinking.
The medical model sees disabled people as the problem. They need to be adapted to fit into the world as it is.
Diagram showing the problems as perceived by “social-model” thinking.
The social model approach suggests disabled people’s disadvantage is due to a complex form of institutional discrimination, as fundamental to society as sexism or racism.
Chart comparing the attitudes of
medical model and social model thinking.
Kathy Summers said,
February 17, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for sharing this visual representation of the social and medical models of disabilities. I printed off the chart to keep as a reference.
I am definitely a supporter of the social model. I think that we need to look at this model as individualizing education. We have to examine the needs of the individual child especially those students who find mainstream education difficult (this could also be any student at any stage of their education).
I guess education has always been a service provided to the masses and so time and money have always been the largest deciding factor in what services we can provide to students, disabled or not. However if we as educators maintain our sensitivity and our ability to view each child as an individual we can do our best to meet the needs of individual students and provide individualized programing. We can always recognize the value of diversity of children by providing a nurturing environment void of sarcasm and negative judgment of students who in one way or the other do not fit our mainstream ideas.