Medical model of disability

A framework that views disability as a problem residing in the individual, caused by disease, trauma, or health condition, and requiring medical intervention to "fix" the person. In this model, a blind person is defined by their lack of sight, and solutions focus on treating or compensating for that specific impairment. The medical model contrasts with the social model (which locates disability in societal barriers) and the functional model (which describes what the user can do rather than what is wrong). In digital accessibility, the medical model manifests when systems categorise users by diagnostic labels ("blind", "deaf") rather than by functional capabilities or interaction needs. While medical understanding of conditions like colour blindness informs accessibility work, the field has broadly moved toward functional and social models that focus on removing barriers rather than cataloguing impairments.