Disability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Disability - Essay Example As such, the firstterm is referredto as individualism, which renders disability an individual problem and thus ought to be handled individually, an aspect that has led to stigmatization of individuals with disabilities. On the other hand, medicalization is another representation of disability, which has been used to define disability as a medical problem and thus ought to be medically rectified. This has overshadowed a perception of the features of the disabled individuals as characteristicsthat are part of them and thus ought to be accepted, and instead emphasized on the need to increase medical research in the view of changing the disabled. Lastly, another representation involves normality, where society has established certain traits that they deem human, and thus they alienate any individual as disabled if they fail to meet the trait requirements as established. The author concludes that the developed meanings of disability involving all the representations have facilitated the d evelopment of mechanisms of solving individual disabilities medically, when most of them are as a result of social problems and thus measures ought to be directed towards changing the social environment in order to accommodate the varying individual needs. To establish a highly effective and in-depth meaning, disability can be viewed as a social problem that results in the suffering of the body of an individual, because of lack of opportunity, social isolation, and exclusion. There is need for a social model in the place of the medical model in the definition and management of disability. Different individuals have developed definitions of disability over the years, with some of the definitions being termed as stigmatizing. The development of societal view of the disabled individuals lieson the definitions directed towards the concept. Three major representations, namely, normality, individualism, and medicalization, have been used to define disability with contrasting views of