3. Individual/Medical model

Contents: Disability as an individual deficit, origins and development, reliance on expert opinion.

The individual or medical model locates disability primarily within the body or mind of the individual. Disability is understood as an individual "problem" and as the result of an illness, injury or functional impairment that should be diagnosed, treated or overcome. People with disabilities are seen primarily as patients, and their disability is associated with notions of suffering. Key categories include deficit, limitation and deviation from the norm. Social influences, as well as environmental and structural barriers, are not taken into account in this understanding, or are viewed merely as a framework for individual rehabilitation.

Historically, this model is closely linked to the development of modern medicine, psychiatry and rehabilitation sciences, and shapes, for example, the first classification of disabilities published by the World Health Organisation, the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH) from 1980 (Hirschberg, 2022, p. 95; Egen & Waldhoff, 2023, p. 194). It is characterised by a strong expert-led approach, in which specialists define what constitutes a disability and what measures are required.