ABSTRACT
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) occupies an intriguing place in disability studies. This chapter presents the ICF from a stance within disability studies, scrutinising the ICF’s theoretical foundations, philosophical and conceptual assumptions, and potential value for disability studies scholarship, while skimming over many of the technical details of the ICF as an epidemiological, clinical and health systems tool and international standard. The ICF is an international statistical, clinical and scientific classification standard that embodies a conceptionalisation of functioning and disability. The World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed the publication and global use of the ICF in May 2001. The ICF, to sum up, is a product of WHO’s epidemiological and statistical role as the premier international public health organisation, one that fully recognises and builds on a person-environment interactive conception of both health and functioning/disability. The ICF conceptualises–and provides an international language to describe–functioning and disability from the perspective of health.
