The social model of disability

This model is a way of understanding the world that says people are disabled by barriers in society rather than by their difference or impairment. If barriers are removed, a person may still have an impairment but they would not be disabled. For example, an early years setting without ramps connecting the indoor and outdoor areas would be disabling a child who uses a wheelchair from moving freely around the setting.

The social model was developed by disabled people themselves in the 1970s as part of a civil rights movement campaigning for equality and seeking to change attitudes towards disability. It is part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that: