Medical Model vs. Social Model of Disability

The medical model is a belief long fallen out of favor with the disabled community. It’s the idea that disability might reduce quality of life and, therefore, it should be diminished or corrected through medical intervention. The social model holds that society’s attitudes, structure, and organization causes a disability rather than a person’s impairment or difference causing it (i.e. Someone who is deaf is disabled by a lack of accessible communication, like sign language and captions, rather than their ability to hear. Someone who uses a wheelchair for mobility is disabled by stairs or lack of sidewalks).