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Disability and Social Work Practice
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1. Why might thinking of persons with disabilities as courageous be stigmatizing?
Ascribing a common trait to any group can be problematic, as it overlooks the varying identities and experiences people can have. Further, equating living with a disability to something that requires courage and strength presumes that it is a deviation from the norm that one must overcome.
2. Why might thinking of disability as static be problematic?
Many persons with disabilities experience fluctuation in their capacity to function. Persons with anxiety disorders, for example, may have periods where they are completely immobilized and other periods where they can function at almost 100 per cent. The changes may be due to environmental factors, developmental demands, or personal factors. Thinking about people moving in and out of disability may be one way to capture those experiences in a more fluid way.
3. What makes the inclusion criteria for the Canadian Survey on Disability a functional approach to disability?
The only people included in the Canadian Survey on Disability were those Canadians who reported an activity limitation in answer to the Activities of Daily Living question included in the 2016 Census long-form questionnaire. Therefore, people with a diagnosis (categorical) without any functional limitations were not included in the survey.
4. What challenges do persons with disabilities face as they transition into adulthood?
Persons with disabilities transitioning into adulthood face the normal developmental challenges of all emerging young adults. However, compounding the need to learn how to become more independent and self-sufficient, these individuals must also leave their current service providers and enter into new relationships with adult services. Thus, they face institutional transitions that must be managed and negotiated.
5. What are some of the distinguishing features of the medical model of disability?
The medical model of disability is expert-driven in that it relies on an expert and the use of standardized tests to determine if someone has a disability. It views disability as an individual deficit and conceptualizes disability as fundamentally physiological.
6. How are individual notions of disability and capitalism connected?
Seeing disability as a deficit ascribes favour to being able-bodied. Capitalism also values being able-bodied, as it is founded on the assumption that one is most valuable when one is productive. Together, these ideas suggest that someone who is able-bodied is independent, productive, and desirable while someone who is not able-bodied is dependent, a burden, and less desirable.
7. What are the three key components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health used by the World Health Organization?
According to the ICF, disability is comprised of the following three components: (1) bodily functions and structures; (2) activity and participation domains; and (3) environmental factors including physical, social, and attitudinal settings. In this way, disability is seen in both biological and social terms.