Glossary
Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.
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- Cultural Model of Disability
- An extension of disability models that accounts for the multitude of cultural meanings embedded in disability across different societies and communities. The cultural model recognizes that disability is not experienced uniformly across cultures—different cultural contexts…
- Human Rights Model of Disability(also: Rights-Based Model of Disability)
- A framework for understanding disability that builds on and extends the social model by emphasising the inherent dignity and rights of people with disabilities. Grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), this model goes beyond identifying…
- Medical Model of Disability(also: Individual Model of Disability)
- A framework that views disability as a deficit or pathology within an individual that should be treated, cured, or rehabilitated. Under the medical model, disability is seen as a personal health problem, and the primary response is medical intervention to make the individual…
- Political/Relational Model of Disability(also: Relational Model of Disability)
- A model of disability described by Alison Kafer that situates disability within sociopolitical systems, emphasizing how structures of power and interactions between people construct the experience of disability. Unlike the social model's focus on environmental barriers or the…
- Social Model of Disability
- A framework originating in disability studies and activism that views disability not as an inherent deficit in an individual but as the result of social, environmental, and political barriers that exclude people with impairments from full participation. Introduced by Michael…
- Social Model of Disability(also: Social Construction of Disability)
- A framework that locates disability not in an individual's body or mind but in the barriers created by society — including physical environments, attitudes, policies, and systems that exclude people with impairments from full participation. Developed in contrast to the medical…
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