ABSTRACT
Briefly put, the medical model has been commonly regarded by the DRM as an inaccurate interpretation of disability forming the basis of oppressive and exploitative relationships between non-disabled and disabled people. The argument is that focusing on individual medical conditions as the causes of disability, the medical model, first, incorrectly defines disability as a fixed condition related to the severity of a medical impairment. Second, it also incorrectly assumes that it is this medical condition, often defined as ‘handicap’, which inevitably causes ‘dependency’ between disabled and non-disabled people. So, according to Colin Barnes, the medical model links the term ‘handicapped’ with ‘individually based functional limitations’ which in turn falsely implies that: ‘The impairment is permanent and that [the handicapped] will almost certainly remain dependent throughout their lives’ (Barnes 1991: 2).
