Disability Discourse: Overview and Critiques of the Medical and Social Models

Over time, the meaning of disability has been understood in a variety of ways. The way in which disability is understood is important because the language people use to describe individuals with disabilities influences their expectations and interactions with them. For physical education teachers, philosophical orientation in regard to disability discourse can influence how they treat and interact with students with disabilities in their classes. Most recently, the medical and social models have been the two prominent models of disability discourse. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the medical and social models of disability discourse by comparing, contrasting, and critiquing the models. Further, we present practical examples using different hypothetical scenarios involving the same student with disabilities to depict how a teacher with a medical model orientation compared to a teacher with a social model orientation would interact and work with a student with a disability in physical education.