I’m disabled: that’s a fact, not what society has decided

The idea that disability is merely a social construct does more harm than good, writes Melanie Reid

- Melanie Reid

Utopia, I’ve always thought, would be a ghastly place. Perfection and niceness everywhere.

Life as a beige soup — nothing to chew on, laugh at or moan about, no grit, no flaws, no pratfalls or scandals, no opinions, no social and physical challenges to tackle.

Over the last 50 years academics and activists have promulgated something called the social model of disability, which floats the possibility of a world without disability. Yes, given a sufficient revolution in values, attitudes and political and economic structures, those Utopian gates will apparently spring open.

I’m not sure how many people, disabled or otherwise, are aware of the social model. It’s radical. It’s also, from my perspective, bonkers. It decrees that disability isn’t caused by the problems of an individual, by something broken in their body — that’s the traditional medical model. Instead, disability is caused by society.

Society disables people by oppressing, excluding and discriminating. As presently structured, society is created in completely the wrong way. Follow this magic thinking to its conclusion and, hey presto: a disabled person isn’t actually disabled, they’re someone with an impairment who is disabled by society.