An academic component to disability studies began in 1970 during the disabled people’s movement. Ever since then, there has been a prominent link between activism and academics. The educational model of disabilities goes hand in hand with the social and medical models because of the major emphasis on how these models lead to disability policies. Over the years, “special education” has become widened and more accepted in schools. 

The struggle for inclusion in educational settings

“The education of all children which necessitates serious changes, both in terms of society and its economic, social conditions and relations and in the schools of which they are a part.” 

'Inclusive Education' definition

People that view disability from an educational perspective often see people with disabilities as needing assistance to become more like the rest of “us”. The problem with this view is that it promotes low expectations of people with disabilities, and assumes unequal relationships.This philosophy also assumes successful people with disabilities are heroic , inspirational, role-models, and/or courageous. 

Pepperdine University

The language and terminology that those within a certain disability group generally prefer. For example, many Deaf individuals prefer to be called "Deaf" or "hard of hearing" rather than "hearing impaired" or "a person who is deaf"

Disability Language

Children nodes connected include several alternate ways of classifying and defining disability

- Medical Model 
- Social Model
- Identity Model
- Human Rights Model
- Cultural Model
- Economic Model
- Charity Model
- Limits Model
- Cultural Model
- Educational Model
- Functional Model
- Materialist Social Model

Conflicting Models and Definitions of Disability

Rochford, R. (2021). Disability-Friendly Terminology. DisabilityInfo.org. https://disabilityinfo.org/fact-sheet-library/information-referral/disability-friendly-terminology/


Disability-Friendly Terminology

Identity-first language refers to when a person's disability identity is placed prior to a noun referring to their personhood in a sentence.

Example: Saying "disabled person" rather than "a person with a disability"

Identity-First Language

Arranging a sentence so as to put the noun referring to a person before the affliction, disease, or disability.
Example: saying "person with a disability" rather than "disabled person"

Person-First Language

This law changed the language that referred to people with disabilities in multiple pieces of federal legislation to reflect more inclusive terminology. 

Rosas Law (Pub. L. 111-256)

Educational model of demeaning disability-friendly terminology

The medical model promotes the image of people with disabilities as needing health care or as “sick”. While many people with disabilities do have a predisposition for certain medical conditions, this does not mean they are always sick. Many people with the philosophy of the medical model underestimate the human capacity to learn about the complexities of the human body, and thus to make safe decisions about one’s disability.


Medical model of demeaning disability-friendly terminology

* Out-dated langage: Dumb, Invalid 


* Respectful language: Blind/Visually Impaired, Person who is blind/visually impaired 

Appropriate Terms for Blind or Visually Impairment 

* Out-dated langage: Invalid, Deaf-and-Dumb, Deaf-Mute


* Respectful language: Deaf or Hard-of-hearing, Person who is deaf or hard of hearing 


Appropriate Terms for Deaf or Hearing Impairment 

* Out-dated langage: Dumb, “One who talks bad"


* Respectful language: Person with a speech / communication disability

Appropriate Terms for Speech/Communication Disability

* Out-dated langage: Retarded, Slow, BrainDamaged, “Special ed” 


* Respectful language:  Person with a learning or cognitive disability

Appropriate Terms for Learning Disability 

* Out-dated langage: Hyper-sensitive, Psycho, Crazy, Insane, Wacko, Nuts

* Respectful language: Person with a psychiatric disability, Person with a mental health disability

Appropriate Terms for Mental Health Disability 

* Out-dated langage: Handicapped, Physically Challenged, “Special,” Deformed, Cripple, Gimp, Spastic, Spaz, Wheelchairbound, Lame


* Respectful language: Wheelchair user, Person with a mobility or physical disability 



Appropriate Terms for Mobility/Physical Disability

* Out-dated langage:  Retard, Mentally retarded, “Special ed”


* Respectful language: Person with a cognitive/developmental disability

Appropriate Terms for Cognitive Disability

* Out-dated langage:  Dwarf, Midget 


* Respectful language: Someone of short stature

Appropriate Terms for Short Stature, Dwarfism

 * Out-dated langage: Victim, Someone “stricken with” a disability (i.e. “someone stricken with cancer” or “an AIDS victim”


* Respectful language: Survivor, Someone “living with” a specific disability (i.e.
“someone living with cancer or AIDS”) 

Appropriate Terms for Medical Disabilities/Health Conditions

Psychologists are obligated to develop and maintain competency levels of disability land its language usage as well as those impacted by it.

Role of Psychologists in using disability language

~ The person is always put before the disability (Ex: Person WITH a disability)
~ Groups are individualized (Ex: People with disabilities)
~ Advocated to be used by the APA
~Highly Prevalent in academic and professional settings within the United States

Person First Language

~ Disability or a particular disability is the main focus.
~ Promoted by activists and authors.
~ Linked to disability culture.
~ APA recommends using identity-first language to both characterize disability and in reference to those with disabilities.


Identity First Language

In a survey of 728 autistic individuals/individuals with autism and autistic community stakeholders (allistics including: parents, family members, friends, professionals, and those with no interaction with autistic individuals) it was found autistic adults preferred to self-identify with identity first-language with 87% of surveyed autistic adults preferring identityfirst language. Whereas, professionals, allistic friends, allistic non-parent family members, and individuals with no connection to an autistic individual preferred to use person-first language for autistic individuals/individuals with autism.

However since a significant minority of individuals with autism preferred person first language  (13%) it is still suggestedpeople ask what an individuals preference is. 

Person First and Identity First Language for Autistic Individuals/Individuals with Autism

Language choices carry social, cognitive, and emotional weight. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (2005) explains how language affects perception, with social context and cognition influencing each other. This theoretical foundation is essential because the perception and attitudes toward disabled people are directly influenced by terminology, often through stigmatizing language and objectifying labels.

Summary of #SaytheWord: A Disability Culture Commentary on the Erasure of “Disability”

A classification method developed by the World Health Organization to model the impacts of a disability on a person's life. In this model, disability has three components, or dimensions, in which effects of disability can be observed. These are based on impairment, activity limitation, and participation restrictions. Any particular disability may cause a positive or negative effect in all or only some of these categories. 





Three Dimensions of Disability Classification Model

The medical model positions a disability as something that must be diagnosed and addressed with medical intervention. It views disabilities as something that reduces a person’s quality of life, curing the disability as the ultimate goal. Also, the medical model promotes the image of people with disabilities as needing health care or as “sick”. Many people with the philosophy of the medical model underestimate the human capacity to learn about the complexities of the human body, and thus to make safe decisions about one’s disability.

Medical Model of Disability

The social model positions society as the disabling agent, rather than an individual’s impairment. Under the social model, an impairment is not automatically a disability. It is only a disability when society is not structured (physically, socially, or culturally) to include that impairment/variation. For example, in a society where glasses/corrective lenses are accessible and socially accepted, the impairment of having blurry vision without them is not necessarily disabling. The social model seeks to make changes in society, rather than focusing on disabled people to change.

Social Model of Disability

This model is considered to be a more nuanced approach of the social/political view of disability studies, ranging from medical to socio-political views. It explored disabilities as the interaction with the societies around them, as it was believed that one's disability is a product of the environment and bodily factors.

Cultural Model View of Disabilities

Alison Kafer determines that the political/relational model differs from the social model because it includes lived experiences of people with disabilities, in addition to potential medical treatments. 

Political/relational Model 

The Functional Model constructs disability in more subjective terms and takes into account how their impairment affects the functioning of a specific individual based on their daily purpose and tasks.  

The Functional Model of Disability 

In this piece, Paul Heilker examines autism as a form of rhetoric and how the various forces, media portrays, autistic community understandings, and cultural forces, work to construct autism as an overwhelmingly white phenomenon in public discourses. 

Autism, Rhetoric, and Whiteness

Developed by Michael Oliver, this model represents disability as culturally-constructed through centuries of medical thinking and knowledge systems. It argues disability concepts are deployed to attribute individual causes for systematic exclusion of certain bodies and minds. The model examines how medical discourse creates categories that justify social exclusion. It emphasizes material conditions and power structures behind disability construction.

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