Disability and public health is the branch of public health concerned with the roughly one in four adults who lives with a disability, defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as any condition of body or mind that makes certain activities or interactions with the world more difficult. Historically the field concentrated on the prevention of disability, and it continues to do so, but as disability has come to be recognized as part of the normal range of human experience the field has taken on a second focus of promoting the health of people who already live with disabilities. People with disabilities report higher rates of chronic illness, mental health difficulty, and unmet healthcare need, and the field works to reduce these disparities through inclusive policy design, accessible health systems, and community-based intervention.
Facts
Central QuestionSourced to the subject's own accountWhat conditions make activities or equitable access to society more difficult for a person, and what population-level action reduces that difficulty rather than treating it as fixed. 1 Key DebateSourced to the subject's own accountThe field's own foundational medical-versus-social model split is itself disputed: scholars including Tom Shakespeare argue the social model, despite its value in placing responsibility on society, has real limits, and that a model overcoming the medical-versus-social dichotomy is still needed. 1 Key DebateSourced to the subject's own accountTwo competing frameworks explain disability in public health terms, the medical model that treats it as a condition to be treated, and the social model that locates the limitation in a society built around the majority; the field has not settled on one over the other. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Disability
WikipediaLead section, first sentence
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society.
Lead section, third paragraph
There are two main models that attempt to explain disability in our society: the medical model and the social model.
Social model section
While recognizing the importance played by the social model in stressing the responsibility of society, scholars, including Tom Shakespeare, point out the limits of the model and urge the need for a new model that will overcome the "medical vs. social" dichotomy.
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