ABSTRACT
For most of the last millennium, disability was most often equated with disease (Smart, 2001, p. 41; Reinders, 2000). Under this medical paradigm of disability, the appropriate response was the quest for a cure. An individual with a disability was generally removed from society, or relieved of social participation (the ‘‘sick role’’) until cured or able to function typically within society (Barnes andMercer, 2003, p. 3). Over the course of the last generation, human ability has been redefined as distributed along continua that are differently observed in different social contexts. Abilities such as vision, hearing, mobility, emotional stability, and comprehension do not simply exist or not exist in individuals, but rather exist in relative degrees with relative significance. Adverse social or political effects of a given place on a continuum of ability are now understood as purely subjective.
