ABSTRACT
Disability studies is an interdisciplinary field of scholarly inquiry that includes representation from the social and behavioral sciences, humanities, and medical, rehabilitation, and education professions (Albrecht, Seelman, and Bury 2001; Goodley 2011). Amidst this variegated field, two models of disability—the medical and social models—represent opposite ends of a continuum that points to different emphases. The medical model “defines disability as a property of the individual body,” rather than the social environment, and is concerned with matters related to the etiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments (Siebers 2008:25). In Michel Foucault’s (1979) terms, the medical model is constituted by a set of disciplinary practices aimed at producing passive individuals or “docile bodies” that are expected to adjust to their impairments and comply with the prescribed regimen of rehabilitative treatment administered by medical professionals who occupy a privileged position of authority vis-à-vis patients or clients (Berger 2013; Wendell 1996).
