The Political Implications of Disability Definitions and Data

The purpose of this analysis is to examine and to compare the conceptual, methodological, and operational implications of the medical and economic perspectives that have formed the bases of the traditional "functional-limitations" paradigm and the sociopolitical definition which is the foundation of the new "minority-group" model for research on disability. Both the medical and economic definitions have relied primarily on clinical methods. Whereas the medical approach has been operationally measured by limits on major life activities, the economic orientation has been measured by restrictions on the amount or kind of work that can be performed. By contrast, the sociopolitical definition, which focuses on the interaction between the individual and the environment, can be empirically assessed by measures of visibility and labeling. Self-identification is also an important index of the relative size and political strength of disabled persons. Because of the significance of new antidiscrimination laws, which appear to be based on the minority-group model, there is a pressing need to grant operational measures of the sociopolitical definition a position of parity in relation to the vast amount of data that have already been accumulated through the use of medical and economic concepts in government and other surveys.