The Social Model of Disability

Feeling connected and a valued member of the learning community is vital for students to feel engaged and interested. Ensuring each learners’ social identity is welcomed is integral to that connectedness and self-worth. The UDL framework can help lead educational institutions away from further marginalizing learners with disabilities by offering an alternative to the pathologizing of learning variability (i.e., the medical model). In the medical model, students need to ask for accommodations any time their learning profile conflicts with the systems and practices that have traditionally catered to the mythical “average” learner in classroom environments (a one-size-fits-all approach). The UDL framework is built upon a social model perspective, whereby disability is welcomed and recognized as a valuable contribution to diversity. This social model perspective can help support and encourage engagement as it is not premised on an individual deficit but rather focuses on the barriers and supports that need to be in place to create a more inclusive and engaging learning environment for all.

The social model of disability views disablement as a result of barriers in society rather than individual pathology (Fovet, 2021).

The following advert flips the concept of disability to demonstrate that access and inclusion is a matter of the relationship between individuals and the barriers within systems and structures that are within the environment.

What Are Disability Barriers?

Disability barriers are commonly found in educational environments. Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), a barrier is defined as “anything that prevents a person with a disability from fully participating in all aspects of society because of their disability.” In other words, barriers happen when places and activities that all people should have access to are designed in ways that limit access. Barriers limit the things people with disabilities can do, the places they can go, and the attitudes others hold towards them. For a description of the different types of barriers related to disability, check out this Fact Sheet from the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

The social model also acknowledges that disability has always been a driver for different types of innovation that we all benefit from. As seen in the image below, Microsoft developed this Persona Spectrum to illustrate how we all fall within a continuum of access needs. Designing for inclusion for people at any point on this access spectrum normalizes access difference and supports many more.

The Persona Spectrum is used to understand related mismatches and motivations across a spectrum of permanent, temporary, and situational scenarios. It’s a quick tool to help foster empathy and show how a solution scales to a broader audience.

The Persona Spectrum

Source: MS Inclusive Toolkit Alt: This image demonstrates how individuals can fall along a spectrum of three access circumstances: permanent, temporary or situational. With regard to interactions involving hearing, a person may have a permanent circumstance: for example a Deaf person, a temporary circumstance: for example an ear infection, or a situational circumstance: a person who works in a loud environment, like a Bartender for example. With regard to interactions involving speaking, a person may have a permanent circumstance: for example a person who is non-verbal, a temporary circumstance: for example a person with laryngitis, or a situational circumstance: a person who speaks with a heavy accent.

Source: MS Inclusive Toolkit Alt: This image demonstrates how individuals can fall along a spectrum of three access circumstances: permanent, temporary or situational. With regard to interactions involving touch, a person may have a permanent circumstance: for example a person who has one arm, a temporary circumstance: for example an arm injury, or a situational circumstance: a person who is a new parent (carrying a baby). With regard to interactions involving sight, a person may have a permanent circumstance: for example a person who is blind, a temporary circumstance: a person with cataracts, or a situational circumstance: for example, a distracted driver.

Disability Drives Innovation

Essential for some, benefits all.

This image is of a scenario that may seem familiar: two people at the gym working out on treadmills watching two separate screens with the captions on. Captions were originally made available so that the Deaf community could access the same content as hearing people. While it is essential for Deaf people, how might captions support other learners?​

Source: Illustration by Chris Vallo © 2013 CAST, Inc Alt: A cartoon showing two individuals on two separate treadmills at the gym. They are running and watching two separate TV screens, both of which have the captions turned on. The runner on the left is a young man looking at a screen with two people speaking to one another. The caption says: “Rain will be coming in tomorrow morning..." The runner on the right side is a young woman looking at a screen with a figure skater. The caption says: “An outstanding performance from this young skater...”

In “The Evolution of Assistive Technology into Everyday Products," Nicolas Steenhout (2018) provides a list of examples of ubiquitous products and tech tools originally developed to provide access for people with disabilities. As a society, we owe a lot to the disability community for these contributions that have become ubiquitous and are often used without awareness that they were intended to allow people with disabilities to live with equity through autonomy and access.

The founders of CAST originally sought to explore ways of using new technologies to provide better educational experiences to students with disabilities. Over the first years of research and implementation, they realized that their strategies and tools could benefit a wider variety of learners. Their efforts were then focused on learner variability and developing the framework for UDL. For more about CAST, explore their timeline of innovation.