Recap: Models of disability

An Overview of the March 2026 Understanding Ableism Webinar: “Models of Disability”

By Sara Marshall, AmeriCorps KCDC Coordinator

(Watch the webinar here on our YouTube channel.)

Intro

Our March Understanding Ableism webinar examined models of disability as key frameworks for understanding how disability is defined, interpreted and responded to across different contexts. For individuals unfamiliar with this concept, models of disability provide a way to understand how assumptions about disability are formed and reinforced. Each model offers a distinct perspective, emphasizing different causes, priorities and solutions. In practice, these frameworks influence how systems are designed, how policies are implemented and how disabled people are perceived and treated in everyday life. 

Most of us have ideas about what disability is, even if we are rarely asked to define it. These ideas can originate from a variety of places, like school, media, healthcare systems and everyday interactions, but those definitions do not always accurately reflect the reality or complexity of living with a disability. Models of disability give us a way to pause and look more closely at those assumptions. They help explain not just what disability is, but how people come to understand it in the first place and offer different ways of understanding the disabled experience. 

Background on Panelists

Lydia McDermott is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing and Public Discourse at Whitman College, where her work focuses on rhetorical historiography, gender studies and disability studies. Her scholarship examines how language and discourse shape public understanding, particularly in relation to complex social issues. In this webinar, McDermott emphasized that models of disability are not neutral frameworks but are shaped by historical and cultural contexts, emphasizing the importance of critically examining how disability is framed across different institutional and cultural settings. 

Philip Bradford serves as an Independent Living Specialist at Disability Empowerment Center, where he works directly with individuals navigating systems of access, independence and community support. Bringing both professional expertise and lived experience to the discussion, Bradford focused on how models of disability are enacted within real-world systems. He reflected on the ways in which support structures can simultaneously provide resources and impose limitations, particularly when they are built on narrow assumptions about independence, productivity or capability. His perspective emphasized the importance of centering disabled voices in shaping systems that affect their daily lives. 

Key Takeaways

The models discussed during the webinar included the medical model, social model, moral/religious model, charity model, human rights model and disability justice model. Together, these frameworks offer multiple ways of understanding disability, each contributing to a broader and more nuanced perspective. While not an exhaustive list of all existing models, they provide a valuable starting point for exploring the potential benefits and limitations of different approaches to disability. 

Throughout the discussion, panelists emphasized that models of disability function as more than theoretical frameworks; they actively shape how disability is understood and experienced across institutional and interpersonal contexts. These models influence how resources are distributed, how access is defined and how disabled people are positioned within systems of care, policy and culture. 

A key theme was the role of underlying assumptions embedded within each model. These assumptions often operate implicitly, shaping expectations around independence, normalcy and productivity. As our two panelists noted, such expectations can place pressure on disabled individuals to conform to dominant standards, while obscuring the ways in which environments and systems contribute to exclusion. Panelists also highlighted the limitations of any single model in capturing the full scope of disabled experiences. Rather than existing in isolation, these frameworks often overlap, with individuals encountering multiple models simultaneously across different settings as both a personal and structural phenomenon. 

Across the conversation, panelists consistently emphasized the importance of centering lived experience. While models can provide useful tools for analysis, they cannot fully account for the diversity and nuance of disabled lives. Meaningful understanding requires engaging directly with disabled individuals and recognizing their expertise in navigating the systems that shape their experiences.