ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the issues outlined above in the context of a survey of the public conducted by the BBC on behalf of the Broadcasting Research Unit. The restricted space available in the survey questionnaire prevented us from dealing with either of these issues in depth; nevertheless there are sufficient data to indicate general patterns of thinking. Most of the responses focused on the medical aspects of disability and disability as a condition due to a disabling characteristic. Members of the public evidently see ‘the disabled’ as individuals who need help because of a medical condition. The responses highlight the physical/medical definition of disability and, equally important, the uncertainty expressed over some ‘disabilities’, such as epilepsy and diabetes, which are usually included under the general umbrella term. The data at hand are limited, but they do, nevertheless, provide no evidence for any public inclination toward the ‘social model’ and its central tenet that it is ‘society which disables’.
