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EDAC137 Disability Studies
10 cp
This unit will provide an introduction to understanding the history of how disability is understood, contemporary definitions and theoretical frameworks for understanding issues related to disability.
Understanding of the nature of disability and responses to disability has varied throughout history. The traditional understanding of disability has been to view disability as an individual's deficiency. More contemporary approaches view disability as a social construct dependent on the interaction of impairment, the degree to which the impairment impacts on what individuals can do, personal attributes and social/environmental responses to disability.
Attempts in Australia to respond to disability have largely been pursued through the provision of specialist service delivery. The Commonwealth Disability Services act 1986 signalled an end to the acceptability of large, residential, “institutional” service provision, and heralded the onset of community based supports.
A major underpinning of moves to community based services in Australia and across the world has been the principle of normalisation and social role valorisation. Another major influence has been the rise of the human rights movement during the 1960s and the social model.
