{"id":5339,"date":"2026-03-17T10:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/directaccessgp.com\/uk\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:45:19","slug":"rethinking-disability-why-we-advocate-socially-but-experience-medically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/directaccessgp.com\/uk\/news\/rethinking-disability-why-we-advocate-socially-but-experience-medically\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Disability: Why We Advocate Socially but Experience Medically"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Anyone who knows anything about Direct Access\u00a0likely understands\u00a0that as a consultancy founded by people with disabilities, we take an empathetic, person-focused approach to accessibility and inclusive design.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Of course, as a business, we also try to highlight how providing disability access provides social and financial value to our clients, but crucially, our framing of disability is one that reflects the\u00a0social model\u00a0of disability, a framework that asserts people are disabled only by the failings of societal barriers like inaccessible environments, discriminatory attitudes, and inflexible policies, rather than by their own impairments or conditions. The latter way of thinking about this is of course, the\u00a0medical model, which is a conversely restrictive framework that places the \u2018fault\u2019 on the disabled person and\u00a0rather removes\u00a0the burden of responsibility from the way our society is structured.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

So when working on a new TikTok for Direct Access\u2019 social media that related to my own disability as an autistic person, the fact that I had a moment where I framed a video I created about my lived experience, with a caption focused on \u201chow many traits\u201d the viewer could relate to,\u00a0it\u00a0came as a surprise to me only when pointed out by a colleague how regressive that was. They\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0mean about it, only pointed out how unusual the choice was.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

So what was the problem?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

While the framing of that video \u201cSigns you may be autistic\u201d mighty seem fairly innocuous and minor slip, and was indeed intended as a light-hearted piece of social media, such an approach can easily promote viewers to self-diagnose themselves, which is not an idea that we want to promote, especially in the current age of social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

So, I\u00a0subsequently\u00a0asked myself, why is it that I moved back toward a medical-model framing when pulling this video together? Does it speak to some deeply held\u00a0beliefs\u00a0about disability?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Having thought about it quite a bit, my theory is that because the medical model has been the dominant mode of thinking for centuries, and because disability has been repeatedly \u2018othered\u2019 as a group separate from the norm, my momentary lapse of reason boils down to the fact that this is simply how I have been taught to understand my own experience. That the problems I face as a disabled person is somehow an exception, rather than the rule.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Despite consciously knowing that disabled people actually account for millions of the population, and that many of us will eventually become disabled ourselves in one way or another, I\u00a0realised\u00a0I had adopted a very hardline, binary idea of my disability in that particular moment, precisely because on some level, as an autistic person, my brain believes that my experience of the world is one that does not reflect the majority, and is defined by common traits or characteristic, which is categorically not true.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Autism more than anything else exists on a spectrum of experience, hence the term\u00a0autism spectrum disorder. And\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0not to say my brain was entirely wrong in its unconscious assessment. After\u00a0all, if the world\u00a0was\u00a0built for everyone, then surely Direct Access and all accessibility consultancies would cease to exist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Why does our brain prefer the Medical Model?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

From\u00a0a very young\u00a0age, the world around me consistently communicated that disability is a personal problem, through school, healthcare, media portrayals, and even the attitudes of family and friends. Messages like these make it almost inevitable to\u00a0internalise\u00a0a medical way of thinking about disability, even if, through my work, I logically support systemic, social approaches to disability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

There\u2019s also the simple fact that the medical model is easier for our brains to grasp because it offers a quick, straightforward explanation. Thinking \u201cI struggle because of my body or brain\u201d is immediate and intuitive, whereas the social model requires us to step back and consider the wider context, how environments, systems, and attitudes create barriers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Many of us are also raised with the assumption that medical treatment or personal adaptation is the primary path to success. As a result, our earliest understanding of disability is often shaped by the medical model, while awareness of the social model tends to come later, once we have more experience and exposure to disability advocacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

There\u2019s\u00a0no question of the importance of the medical model, but beyond its value as an identifier of disability, it does not offer the same value as the medical model to either the disabled individual or the wider system in which we live. Even if disability feels medical in day-to-day life, adopting a social-model mindset allows both individuals and\u00a0organisations\u00a0to focus on solutions, inclusion, and performance, rather than limitations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The Benefits of the Social Model Explained<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

For the disabled individual, the benefits of social-model thinking includes;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Empowerment:<\/b>\u00a0Disabled people are given the freedom to\u00a0identify\u00a0actionable accommodations and adjustments rather than feeling personally \u201cbroken\u201d,\u00a0and to actively contribute to the world around them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Improved Collaboration:<\/b>\u00a0Framing barriers as environmental rather than personal encourages dialogue between decision makers,\u00a0managers\u00a0and disabled individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Better built environments:<\/b>\u00a0Design\u00a0chocies\u00a0like ramps, tactile paving, clear signage, and public transport modifications, make infrastructure usable for disabled people, but also parents with strollers, older adults, and people with temporary injuries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

But\u00a0above all else:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Mental Health:<\/b> Feeling and actively believing that the world can be adapted contributes to reduced stress, frustration, and burnout.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A social-model mindset also improves collaboration. By viewing obstacles as systemic or environmental, disabled people in employment like\u00a0me\u00a0are more likely to engage in open dialogue with managers and colleagues about what they need to succeed. This shared understanding strengthens teamwork and builds a culture where I feel\u00a0supported but\u00a0also reassures my managers that my work will be achieved sufficiently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Direct Access\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0exist either if the social model only\u00a0benefited\u00a0disabled individuals. In reality,\u00a0organisations\u00a0also gain tangible advantages from embracing it. When employers take the time to understand disability and provide\u00a0appropriate accommodations, disabled employees are better able to contribute and perform at their full\u00a0potential.\u00a0Such benefits from that approach include:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Productivity<\/b>:\u00a0Disabled employees perform at full potential with proper accommodations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Retention<\/b>:\u00a0Inclusive practices reduce turnover and associated costs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Innovation:<\/b>\u00a0Diverse, accommodated perspectives foster creativity and problem-solving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Reputation:<\/b>\u00a0Companies seen as inclusive attract talent, clients, and investors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The medical model, by contrast, shifts the responsibility onto the disabled person, creating barriers to performance, inclusion, and engagement and subsequently leading to an\u00a0organisation\u00a0lacking diversity, and thus diverse perspectives, innovations and reputational hazards like poor employee and customer retention (by the way, read this blog if you\u2019re interested in learning just how much expendable income disabled people have).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

So,\u00a0as I reflect on my earlier mistake, which I believe to be born from my experience\u00a0as a disabled person in a world that wasn\u2019t built for me, my conclusion is that even though most disability advocacy today, especially in policy and professional contexts, relies on the social model, my instinct reverted me to the medical model when creating content surrounding my own disability because it\u2019s the understanding embedded in me via years of indoctrination and through various cultural norms and forms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Our job as access consultants is to create change, but no change worth advocating for comes without a wider benefit to all of us, so if you\u2019d like to hear more about why inclusive design and policy choices benefit organisations, businesses, and charities, not just people like me – check out our \u201cInsights\u201d page for more articles on the business case for accessibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Written by Michael Miller<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who knows anything about Direct Access\u00a0likely understands\u00a0that as a consultancy founded by people with disabilities, we take an empathetic, person-focused approach to accessibility and inclusive design.\u00a0 Of course, as a business, we also try to highlight how providing disability access provides social and financial value to our clients, but crucially, our framing of disability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nRethinking Disability: Why We Advocate Socially but Experience Medically - Direct Access<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our framing of disability reflects the social model of disability, asserting people are disabled only by the failings of societal barriers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/directaccessgp.com\/uk\/news\/rethinking-disability-why-we-advocate-socially-but-experience-medically\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rethinking Disability: Why We Advocate Socially but Experience Medically - 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