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Can we, as a community, please recognize that the social model of disability doesn't work for everyone?
Some disabled people aren't disabled by their bodies.
Some absolutely, 100% are. And there's no shame in that.
Some absolutely, 100% are. And there's no shame in that.
Social model in a nutshell: "The social model of disability proposes that what makes someone disabled is not their medical condition, but the attitudes and structures of society."
As someone with a progressive-type illness, I'm always going to be disabled, in some way, by my body itself independent of accessibility features and attitudes of the world at large.
It gets even more complicated when I try to fit my mental illnesses into this model.
And it's not because I haven't "thought enough about it" or "don't know enough." I WANT the social model to be THE THING because I like how it sounds. But it's just not what represents my experience. And that's fine.
I think there's a problem when we see it as the BE ALL END ALL of models re: disability.
And this isn't to put the social model of disability down, either. It definitely works for certain people. But it's not the only model or experience of disability and we erase a LOTTTT of people's experiences when we act like it is.
More useful info from @romluras https://twitter.com/romluras/status/1275555509098164224
Lemme just add that I don't believe there CAN be one, all encompassing model that truly reflects every possible experience within Disability. If one existed, it'd have to be so watered down to the point where it'd be worthless to anyone.
If there were one all encompassing model it'd be pretty damn complex for it to truly work. Maybe it can be done I dunno.
Everyone, also, you can say it's reductionist (which is why I said "in a nutshell"), but you can't deny that the idea behind "I'm not disabled by my body but by society" is the cornerstone of this idea and that doesn't resonate with everyone.
If it weren't the cornerstone I wouldn't be seeing it over and over and over and over and over and over and OVER again.
It's also worth mentioning that the disabled academics involved with the term itself "did not intend the social model of disability to be an all-encompassing theory of disability, but rather a starting point in reframing how society views disability."
So, no, it's not supposed to be all encompassing like a LOT of people pretend it is.
It's also been criticized for treating disabled people like a monolith as well as minimizing realities of "impairments." These are valid critiques. It serves no one to pretend they aren't.
Like I've said, to death at this point, I don't HATE the social model. I don't HATE people for whom it resonates. I don't stand behind the medical or charity model (but it's cute that people assume I do?).
There are parts of it that have merit to me personally. I don't believe in throwing the whole thing out. Lol. But I think it's limited and as a community we deserve more than one model to explain our existence.
Like, I'm sorry, but it shouldn't be controversial to say "one model of disability doesn't resonate with every disabled person."
tl;dr with this thread is basically "We need to stop acting like one model is the be all end all of disability and we need to listen to each other."
So I suppose I should've started this thread by saying
"Can we, as a community, stop expecting one model to be complete enough to truly reflect everyone's individual experiences?"
"Can we, as a community, stop expecting one model to be complete enough to truly reflect everyone's individual experiences?"
