ABSTRACT
The basic concepts of the "social" model were developed initially by the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation, an organization in the United Kingdom advocating for the rights of people with physical disabilities, beginning in the 1970s. The chapter examines that publicly expressed ideas should be subject to the same kind of testing, regardless of whether their originators or proponents have disabilities. It uses the term social constructionist model to refer to what some writers have called the "social model" of disability. The social constructionist model has been juxtaposed with what social constructionists have called an individual or medical model. Social constructionists seem to conclude that in the absence of social barriers, people with impairments would no longer have disabilities. The chapter provides some clarifications about special education, based on data from the United States. It considers that the accusations against special education are not only false but also are a simplistic conceptualization of educational justice, fairness, and equity.
