ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the dominant understandings of disability found within society: the medical and the social model. It considers the different circumstances and identify the problems and merits associated with each type of provision. It offers an insight into the possibilities and challenges that emerge when enabling disabled people to participate in sport and leisure. Impairment is central to the understanding of disability within the medical model. The social model of disability emerged as an alternative to challenge the medical model. Integrated provision can be hindered by the attitudes of both disabled and non-disabled people. The success of integrated provision also depends upon the nature of impairment and associated needs. It is a combination of approaches supporting integration, reverse integration, separation or inclusion that offers the possibilities for a diversity of provision and opportunities such that disabled people feel free to participate on their own terms.
