In our endeavor and commitment to building an online community for people with disabilities, we will be making regugular posts outlining and reviewing topic that may be of interest to you.  

There are several ways of defining disability. The two most widely used definitions are the medical model and the social model (the social model being the one most disabled people themselves, generally, prefer as this emphasises teh social restrictions that can prevent disabled people from having an equal opportunity to take part in fully in all aspects of life).

The Medical Model

This definition of disability was composed by the World Heath Organisation (WHO) in the early 1980s. This definition defines impairment, disability and handicap as follows:

IMPAIRMENT: loss or abnormality in structure or function

DISABILITY : inability to perform an activity within the normal range for a human being, because of an impairment

HANDICAP : inability to carry out normal social roles because of an impairment/disability.

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