ABSTRACT
Almost everyone agrees that the British social model, sometimes called the ‘strong’ social model, represents a fundamental and far-reaching transformation in the way societies think about disability (Shakespeare 2014). Arguing that disability was separate from impairment and that disability was socially created meant that it could be reduced or eliminated by making the built environment more accessible to people living with impairments and by passing legislation that would help to protect disabled people’s rights. Social model thinking has been adopted by various governments throughout the world (e.g. the Americans with Disabilities Act) and can be seen in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Yet, as Tom Shakespeare has argued, ‘the strength and simplicity of the strong social model of disability has created as many problems as it has solved’ (2014: 14).
