My first encounter with a person with disabilities occurred when I visited Akropong school for the Blind in 2015. 5 years on, I am part of the second cohort of the master’s program in MSc Disability, Design & Innovation (DDI) offered by University College London in collaboration with the Global Disability Innovation Hub, Loughborough University, and London College of Arts.
5 years ago, my understanding of disability was segregation, inadequate resources, poverty, inaccessible education, incurable impairment, and begging. When I met Isaac, a young adult with a disability in his mid-twenties using the smartphone to communicate on WhatsApp, Facebook and emails, lifted a certain view in my understanding of disability and drew me closer to exploring the field of in the more intentional, passionate, and curious way.
For many people in Ghana and maybe other parts of Africa, disability has been seen over the years as an incurable impairment caused by some spiritual being, medical condition, or a curse which leaves one in a state of poverty, pity, and one who begs to be able to afford a meal. I agree with Sophie in her book Disability, Health, and Development that the term ‘Disability’ has become impossible to convey a neutral or potentially empowering discourse around persons with disabilities.
As the discussion on disabilities began in my MSc DDI course, I started to reflect on the how society (my society in particular), academics, and how professionals and development organizations define disability and how that informs how disability is measured, policy design and how the subject area is approached.
In Ghana, the Statistical service reported that there are about 5% of persons with disabilities in Ghana. Meanwhile, the WHO reports about 15% of persons with disabilities in the world. This raises questions to investigate the variance in numbers. Recognizing the stigma associated with disability in Ghana, one of the reasons for this variance is people not disclosing their disabilities as discussed in class. As Sophie puts it, one of the obstacles to addressing disability in a serious and sustained way is lack of data.
Understanding how disability is defined stood out for me as I reviewed the different models and approaches. It was also very helpful to learn from Dr. Nora about the history of these models. The medical model considers disability as a problem of the individual that is caused by a disease, an injury, or other health conditions and requires prevention interventions or medical care in the form of treatment and rehabilitation. Unfortunately due to poverty and lack of adequate health provision, many people because disabled as this model projects.
How can governments and leaders lead interventions that will ensure that people have access to quality health services and safe environments that will ensure that disability through the medical model lens is reduced?
The social model sees disability as a social creation. Within this framing, disability is not the attribute of the individual, but is instead created by the social environment and thus requires social change.
“The terms ‘impairment’ and ‘disability’ have very different meanings with impairment referring to an individual’s condition and disability referring to social disadvantage, discrimination, and exclusion” (Mitra, 2018).
Based on this model, there is a clear understanding of how the society we have created have made people disabled. People may have impairments, but they become disabled on top of their impairments as a result of societal oppression. This includes those who are marginalized by society as a result of school segregation, inadequate housing and transportation, and exclusion from many public facilities
We all have a responsibility to ensure that we create a society that does not make people disabled but one that empowers people to live beyond their impairments.