The Systems Theory Concept of Disability: One is not born a disabled person, one is observed to be one

The article aims at the theoretical development of the concept of disability, with particular reference to its integration with social systems theory. The concept of disability is discussed by suggesting that the predominant models within disability research cannot communicate with each other because they represent different observation points, all of them describing disability from within a specific system. It is the thesis of this article that the distinction between individual and society, which constitute the basis of the well-known scheme of observed differences between impairment, disability and 'handicap', is a distinction based on nai¨ve realism and obscures the problems within disability research. In line with a long tradition within sociology, social system theory rejects the belief that our concepts are representations of reality: the categories and concepts we use are distinctions that are system specific. It is through those distinctions that the phenomenon is observed. This implies that observations are not absolute but relative to the observer's perspective.