> Surely the degree of strength needed to participate is socially determined.
> Is exclusion on this account not discrimination too?
> I suggest (as I believe others have) that incorporating parts of the medical
> model is not what is needed but rather an extension and refinement of the
> social model.
Arguably, what we need is actually a social model of impairment or
illness that can encompass such issues without resorting to the
duality of measuring impairment vs health
>
> Fiona Harrison
Somebody (not Fiona, sorry but my email reader won't let me identify
who) said:
> >> it should not be the job of researchers to compare different lives
As a researcher working in 'health services research' but committed
to the social model of disability, I would argue that the comparison
of different lives is actually a fundamental part of what social
research is all about, but this does not preclude working with a
social model of disability. What I would advocate is the development
of new types of indicators of Quality of Life that encompass such
notions as choice, control and measure how these impact on social
participation. But this does still involve comparisons and
conclusions that some people are more able to participate in society
than others. However if we, as researchers, can show that some
interventions, be they health, environmental or otherwise, enable
disabled people to exert more choice and control, and this have a
better 'quality of life' than those who cannot exert such choice and
control, then we have a duty to do so and this, to my mind, is
entirely compatible with a commitment to a social model of
disability.
Kirstein
>
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Kirstein Rummery
NPCRDC
5th Floor, Williamson Building
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
Tel: 0161-275-7637
FAX: 0161-275-7600
Email: [log in to unmask]
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