Disability reconsidered: The paradox of physical therapy
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
12-1-2011
Abstract
The purposes of this perspective article are: (1) to explore models of disability from the perspective of the academic discipline of disability studies (DS), (2) to consider the paradox of improving functional capacities while valuing disability as diversity, (3) to identify how physical therapy's use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) disablement model intersects with various disability models, and (4) to apply this broader understanding of disability to physical therapist practice, education, and research. The DS literature has been critical of rehabilitation professionals, particularly targeting the medical model of disability. In contrast, advocates for a social model of disability recognize disability as diversity. It is paradoxical for physical therapy to simultaneously work to ameliorate disability while celebrating it as diversity. The ICF biopsychosocial disablement model offers a mechanism to practice within this paradox and suggests that it is no longer sufficient to conceptualize disability as a purely individual matter that requires attention in isolation from the impact of the larger society. © 2011 American Physical Therapy Association.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Physical Therapy
Volume
91
Issue
12
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Roush, Susan E., and Nancy Sharby. "Disability reconsidered: The paradox of physical therapy." Physical Therapy 91, 12 (2011). doi: 10.2522/ptj.20100389.