ABSTRACT
Disabled people and their everyday realities are usually considered in the context of barriers to participation in the labour market, education, health and social care services, independent living and more recently sexuality and family relations. The individual model of disability that is also known as the ‘medical’ model, perceives disabled people’s experiences as a direct result of their impairments. It portrays disability as a ‘personal tragedy’ and positions people with impairments as ‘abnormal’ and weak individuals, who need sympathy and have to be ‘cured’ or ‘cared’ for. In M. Oliver’s terms, the social model ‘involves nothing more or less fundamental than a switch away from focusing on the physical limitations of particular individuals to the way the physical and social environments impose limitations upon certain groups or categories of people’. The decision to adapt J. Habermas’ theory of communicative action is premised on several interrelated strands. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
