Towards Economic Empowerment for Disabled People: Exploring ...

focuses more on the impact of impairment, but it also highlights the chains of
causality, which helps to explain why the overlap between poverty and
disability that Yeo observes is so large and deep-rooted. Sen’s observations
and the arguments put forward by DIG tend to reinforce both of these
positions. Taken together, these concepts deepen our understanding of the
relationship between disability and poverty, each adding weight to the
justification for promoting the economic empowerment of disabled people.
2.3 Individual Model of Disability
Traditionally, disability has been understood in terms of the ‘individual model
of disability’, which tend to perceive “the problems that disabled people
experience as being a direct consequence of their impairment” (Oliver &
Sapey, 2006, p22). These problems may be caused by functional limitations or
psychological losses, but either way they are located firmly within the
individual, and “assumed to arise from disability” (Oliver, 1996, p32). For
example, a spinal injury, which causes paralysis, may disable an individual by
preventing them from walking, which in turn may limit their ability to travel
or to find employment (Abberley, 1999). If the individual also incurs
psychological losses, such as depression or loss of confidence, as a result of
the injury, then this creates further disability.
Two individual perspectives that are commonly referred to are the ‘charity
model’ and the ‘medical model’. The ‘charity model’ describes the
philanthropic approach, which tends to view disabled people as less fortunate
people, requiring care, help and protection. The ‘medical model’, on the other
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