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Thian, This is not the social model that I know. On the contrary, the social model (UK version) actively resists splitting people into impairment groups conceptually or otherwise and struggles to maintain the collective notion of disabillity. However, what does happen is that some people find the conceptual framework of the social model restricting and so they form minorities, sometimes on the basis of impairment e.g Deaf people, people with learning difficulties, and some blind people. I agree totally with your comments about the dangers of minorities within minorities, but this is the identity politics that many social movements have to go through in order to gain recognition for their members. There comes a time however, when most movements begin to consider whether such a strategy has lived its life and needs to be changed if we are to move forward. That is why we are now looking towards a social theory of disability. So far as your comment about 'community' is concerned I wonder if you are using a Western concept of community or something else? For my own part, I find some Majority World conceptualisations of community more useful in describing the kind of community we have than traditional Western notions. Indeed it is precisely because our 'community' is formed in a different way that we struggle to be recognised as a community in an individualist society. However, there is no doubt in my mind that we HAVE a community, and we have a movement, but these are different things and have different memberships. Best wishes, Mairian >I think one problem, I have with what we call "social model" of >"disability", is that we put people with different types of disabilities >under the same group. For whatever reasons, this approach simply creates >more problems of causing minority groups within minority groups. That''s >why I could not swallow this model as much as I may want to. I don't >believe there is such a thing called "disability community." If I do so, >then I might as well accept the status of being a minority within a >minority group which I decline and will continue to do so. > >Regards, > >Thian. Mairian Corker Senior Research Fellow in Deaf and Disability Studies Department of Education Studies University of Central Lancashire Preston PR1 2HE Fax +44 [0]870 0553967 email: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%