Expanding your interests: How useful are the social and medical models?

In this short video, Tom Shakespeare — a well-known disability scholar and activist — outlines what the medical and social definitions of disability mean to him, saying that he finds some value in the medical aspect in particular situations.

Talking points

• How useful do you find the social and medical models of disability?
• How do you think Tom’s interpretation of disability fits with the ideas we have learned so far?
• Do these models present any problems for better understanding the diverse perceptions and experiences of disabled people’s lives?
• If you already have some experience thinking about disability, you might also share how you would like to see us think about disability.

_{« Back to Basics}