EVOLUTION OF DISABILITY MODELS.
YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW.
This following diagram borrows from a series of posts via Drake Music and information published on Disabled World about how we understand and have previously framed disability throughout history from outdated models to the current model upheld by disability rights activists -and the waythat they have shaped the experiences of disabled people in the future. For more details about the evolution of the models please visit www.drakemusic.org/blog/hdekretser/understanding-disability/ and www.disabled-world.com/definitions/disability-models.php and www.scielo.org.za/pdf/hts/v74n1/06.pdf *Please note, these may not be in the chronological order due to the lack of resources surroundingthe earlier models. Shades of Noir have tried to organise and make as digestible as possible for our readers*
The Religious Model of Disability Language: ‘sin’, ‘shame’, ‘act of god’, ‘divine punishment’
The Moral Model of Disability Language: ‘sin’ moral’, ‘religion’, ‘spiritual’, ‘belief’
The Eugenics Model of Disability Language: ‘normal people’, ‘abnormal people’, ‘fit’, ‘unfit’, ‘undeserving’, ‘inferior’
The Religious Model of Disability The oldest model of disability and is found in a number of religious traditions. The religious model of disability is a pre-modern paradigm that views disability as an act of a god, usually a punishment for some sin committed of some unknown action that caused their impairment. by the disabled individual or their family.
The Moral Model of Disability Refers to the attitude that people are morally responsible for their own disability. The moral/religious model of disability is the oldest model of disability and is found in a number of religious traditions, including the Judeo-Christian tradition. Up until the mid 1800s, most people thought that having a disability was a punishment from God.
The Eugenics Model A framework that came to characterise disability as we understand it today in the modern, Western world. The base logic of the theory of eugenics is that people are either fit or unfit. To be unfit is to be genetically inferior. The theory posits that efforts should be made to decrease all elements of genetic inferiority from the human race until they no longer exist. This categorisation laid the foundations for how we understand people to be disabled or non-disabled today.
58 // DISABLED PEOPLE: THE VOICE OF MANY.