Concept of Disability and Inclusive Education
Senior 2 · History
Concept of Disability and Inclusive Education
Lesson 1 of 4
20 min
The World Health Organization estimates that about 1.3 billion people, roughly 16% of the world's population, live with a significant disability. Almost everyone will experience disability at some point, through illness, injury or old age, or will care for someone who does. Rwanda's Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of disability. Understanding what disability is, and what it is not, is the first step to building a school and a country where everyone takes part.
| Medical model | Social model | |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the problem? | In the person's body | In the barriers society creates |
| Main response | Treat or "fix" the person | Remove barriers so everyone can take part |
| Example | "Mutoni cannot attend class because she uses a wheelchair." | "Mutoni cannot attend class because the classroom is up a flight of stairs." |
Health care matters, and the medical model is not "wrong" about treatment. But the social model shows that many of the restrictions persons with disabilities face can be removed by the rest of us.
Situation: Mutoni, an S2 learner, uses a wheelchair. Her class is on the first floor. She misses lessons and falls behind.
Impairment: limited use of her legs. Barrier: stairs, with no ramp or lift. Solution: move the class to the ground floor or build a ramp. Once the barrier is removed, Mutoni attends every lesson. Her impairment has not changed, but her disability, the restriction she faced, has largely disappeared.
Disabilities can be present from birth (congenital) or begin later in life (acquired), and they can be visible or invisible.
| Say | Avoid |
|---|---|
| person with a disability; persons with disabilities (abafite ubumuga) | "the disabled", insulting nicknames |
| wheelchair user | "confined to a wheelchair" |
| Deaf person, person with a hearing impairment | "deaf and dumb" |
| person with an intellectual disability | insults such as "stupid" or "mad" |
| has (a condition) | "suffers from", "victim of" |
| non-disabled | "normal" |
Tip
Memory hook: Impairment + Barrier = Disability. Remove the barrier and you reduce the disability. When in doubt about language, put the person first: "a learner with a visual impairment", not "a blind case". If unsure, ask the person what they prefer.
Distinguish an impairment from a disability.
Solution. An impairment is a loss of or difference in a body function or structure. A disability is the restriction a person experiences when that impairment meets barriers.
Give one attitudinal and one environmental barrier.
Solution. Attitudinal: believing a Deaf learner cannot become a doctor. Environmental: a school entrance with steps and no ramp.
Rewrite respectfully: "The school has two deaf and dumb pupils who suffer from blindness too."
Solution. "The school has two Deaf learners who also have visual impairments."
Which model says, "Build a ramp so everyone can enter"?
Solution. The social model, because it locates the problem in the barrier (the steps) rather than in the person.
Remember
Sources and credits
