According to the World Health Organization (WHO), we refer to disability when a health condition affects the body functions or structures of a person (
impairment), the capacity to execute activities (
activity limitation) or performance in the social environment (
participation restriction). Disability in that sense is not only a biological problem but also a social problem. It occurs when a person is not able to execute basic activities of human life or to fully participate in society, due to a health condition.
Depending on the definition used, people with disabilities constitute different groups. These groups only partially overlap.
Persons with disabilities under the law on equality
(Definition used in the statistics on equality: topic 20 – Economic and social situation of the population > Equality of people with disabilities)
The FSO defines "Persons with disabilities under the law on equality" as persons who have a long-standing health problem and who say they are limited (severely or not severely) in activities people usually do.
The federal law on equality for persons with disabilities (LHand in French) describes a disability as the limitations or restrictions which a person encounters in fully participating in social life as the result of an impairment or a long-term health problem. This definition is based on a social model of disability (I am unable to move freely) which is different to the individual/medical model (I am paraplegic).
In this model, it is the person themselves who can best say whether they are disabled or not.
Persons with disabilities using a medical approach (individual model)
(topic 14 – Health > Health of the population)
People with a permanent or long-term bodily impairment or functional limitation (difficulty seeing, walking or speaking, etc.).
Recipients of pensions or other social benefits linked with disability
(topic 13 – Social security > Disability insurance and Pension funds)
In accordance with the federal law on the general part of social insurance law (in force since 1st January 2003), the notion of “invalidity” is defined as “a full or partial earning incapacity that is likely to be permanent or persist in the longer-term”. This partial or complete inability to perform paid work (or one’s usual activities) may be caused by a physical, psychological or mental health problem. The health problem may be the result of a congenital disorder, an illness or accident. The notion of invalidity is based on the medical model of disability.
Concepts and models of disability
(Source: Federal Bureau for the Equality of People with Disabilities)
The individual model (or medical model)
The individual model appeared after the First World War and is based on a biomedical approach. Disability is defined as a person’s “physical, psychological or mental impairment” that results in the restriction of their social participation. This model follows a logic of cause and effect: an illness or trauma causes impairment to the organism resulting in the inability to do certain things - this leads to a social disadvantage or disability. Thus the disability is obviously the result of the individual’s impairment. The proposed interventions are mainly medical and are aimed at eventually curing the person or at least rehabilitating them for society as it exists for “abled people”.
The social model
As a reaction to this very medical vision of disability, from the 1960s onwards different movements arose in which people with disabilities developed a strictly social perspective of disability. This gave birth to the social model which considers disability as the result of society’s inability to take account of its members’ differences. Thus the origin of the disability is external to the individual. The type of interventions proposed changes accordingly: the social approach dismisses the ideal of a cure and prefers to work on the abilities the person does have in order to improve their independence in everyday life. This model also advocates the removal of physical and social barriers. This means adapting the environment and services so that persons with physical or mental disabilities can access them and use them.
Interactive models
A third type of model has emerged in reaction to the limited perspectives that the two traditional models may offer. The WHO’s new International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) attempts to take into account individual and environmental aspects in its description of disability. The Disability Creation Process (DCP), which has been developed since the 1980s by Patrick Fougeyrollas and his team in Quebec, focuses on the interaction between the various factors leading to a disabling situation. These new approaches aim to be inclusive and dynamic in an attempt to go beyond the individual determinism of the medical model or the external determinism of the social model.
