A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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essentially a non-tragic view of disability and impairment which encompasses
positive social identities, both individual and collective, for disabled people
grounded in the benefits of lifestyle of being impaired and disabled‟ (Swain and
French, 2000:569).
Rooted within perspectives emerging from the disability arts movement, and aiming to build
upon „the liberatory imperative of the social model‟ (Swain and French, 2000:569), the
affirmative model is identified as a critique of the dominant personal tragedy model
corresponding to the social model as a critique of the medical model. In proposing an
affirmative model Swain and French – drawing upon the writings and experiences of
disabled people - set out a position from which it can be asserted that, far from being
necessarily tragic, living with impairment can be experienced as valuable, exciting,
interesting and satisfying. This is not to deny that there can be negative experiences resulting
from impairment, but to note that this is not all that impairment is about.
The explanation given by Swain and French of the need for an affirmative model relates both
to the feminist and social modellist perspectives described above. By disassociating
impairment from disability, they argue, the social model leaves open the possibility:
that even in an ideal world of full civil rights and participative citizenship for
disabled people, an impairment could be seen to be a personal tragedy‟ (Swain and
French, 2000:571).
The rejection of a tragic view and establishment of an affirmative model is not a concern of
the social model. The feminist position „of admitting that there may be a negative side to
impairment‟ (Swain and French, 2000:571) is also regarded as problematic. John Swain has
observed that when challenges are made to the social model on the grounds that it ignores
impairment, this is always from the perspective that impairment is something awful,
characterised by pain and chronic illness (Cameron, 2008:19). In arguing for an extension of
the social model in order to include the personal, feminists are not making a claim for the
recognition of the rights of disabled people to enjoy being who they are.
The 2000 article has been developed and elaborated upon in Swain and French‟s 2008 book
Disability on Equal Terms. Outlined here is a clear statement of what the affirmative model
is and is not about.
The affirmative model is about:
being different and thinking differently about being different, both individually and
collectively