Post-Modern Model of Disability

A framework for understanding disability that integrates aspects of both the medical and social models, recognizing that both physiological factors and social barriers contribute to the experience of disability. Unlike the medical model (which locates disability in the individual's body) or the social model (which locates it entirely in societal barriers), the post-modern model acknowledges that "some unhealthy disabled people...experience physical or psychological burdens that no amount of social justice can eliminate." This approach privileges each individual's lived experience and recognizes that impairment, illness, functional limitation, and disability are separate but complementary issues that assistive technology must address.