2007 PhD Thesis Final Revised.pdf - Curtin University

The rights-based model was ultimately committed to extending full citizenship to all
people regardless of potentially discriminating elements which included disability
(Fulcher, 1989). In this model, people with disabilities were not just held to be
capable of effective interaction with the rest of society but it was assumed that any
impairment resulting from an individual’s disability should no longer have meaning
in the pursuit of equity and independence (Parsons, 1994). This model differed from
the charity and medical models in that it did not perceive a need for sympathy
towards people with disability, nor did it acknowledge that a difference in body
should affect the capability of an individual. The rights-based model instead focused
on the responsibility of society to resolve difficulties faced by people with
disabilities within the facilities provided to the able-bodied population.
Although the rights-based model still acknowledged that there is a difference
between people with disabilities and the able-bodied population, the model suggested
that effective integration of these differences into society could remove barriers on
physical, environmental and societal levels. Shakespeare (1975, p41) stated that
“neither information alone nor contact with the disabled…are sufficient in
themselves to change attitudes but that the effect of these combined has a favourable
impact.” Such a statement reinforced the fact that, within the rights-based model,
difference could be understood, accepted and compensation provided, without
constituting people with disabilities as lacking essential humanity.
In recent times, disability has also come to be constructed in a manner that is
best termed the economic model, based on the idea that people with disabilities, as
with the able-bodied population, can be understood as consumers who, by buying
goods and services, stimulate a nation’s economic growth. As previously discussed,
approximately 20% of the Australian population has some form of permanent
disability. The provision of products to such a large percentage of the population has
the potential to be highly beneficial to people with disabilities and highly profitable
to corporations providing the necessary goods and services. In particular, people
with disabilities often have special needs for products and services to support their
independence. The provision of both modified mainstream products and disability-
specific products can be seen as mutually advantageous to both people with
disabilities and the corporations which are providing the products and services. The
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