What is the social model of disability?

How did society view and treat people with a disability in our history?

What implications would the biopsychosocial model have on teachers and students with disabilities?

Disability is a complicated subject that is constantly evolving. There are many different types of disability, both visible and invisible. In addition, there are many different types of social barriers for the disabled population, especially in the workplace. Because of these barriers, disabled people are disproportionately unemployed and companies are losing out on a valuable demographic of people. In order for employers to reap the full benefits of employing people with disabilities, it is important that they understand how to be inclusive and accommodating of all people, regardless of ability. Many people may not be inclined to share with their employer that they have a disability, which is why it is important for employers to make their workplace as accommodating as possible without a specific request. Our research suggests that there are many reasons why a person may not want to share their disability with their employer, including on the intraindividual, interpersonal, organisational and societal levels. The intraindividual level has to do with the individual’s personal understanding, or lack thereof, their disability. The interpersonal level is related to how a disabled individual has been and is treated by others. It is on this level that the difference between people with visible disabilities and those with invisible disabilities may have differing experiences and strategies for identifying in the workplace. The organisational level is about how the overall company culture approaches disability. And finally, the societal level is how disability is viewed by society as a whole (Santuzzi, 2016). Employers can influence both the organisational level and the interpersonal level, by creating an accommodating and inclusive company culture. By creating a place in which employees can advocate for their needs, ask for help, and openly discuss any issues, employers will be creating an environment in which a disabled person is not persecuted or ridiculed for needing an accommodation.We also researched how employers feel about the employment of disabled people. Our research shows that employers have misguided conceptions of disability in general. As a result there is a lack of knowledge on the disabled employees’ needs and how to accommodate someone with a disability (Vornholt et al., 2017). In addition, employers seem to have a skewed idea about the cost of employing a person with a disability. For example, they may not realise that costs for accommodations, such as specialised equipment or workplace modification are often one-time things (Graffam et al., 2002). Additionally, employers may not need to pay for such accommodations if they utilise JobAccess and its resources. Short learning videos can be an effective way to help employers have a better understanding of what disability is, as well as how they can accommodate their employees’ needs. However, there is the issue of how to keep viewers engaged. We researched both video length and interactivity in order to maximise engagement. Videos that are under two minutes receive the most engagement, and each minute over two has a drop off of engagement until the video length reaches six minutes. Between six and twelve minutes there is a steady level of engagement, and after twelve minutes the engagement levels begin to drop more, as seen in the table below (Fisherman, 2016). According to a study by Rachel Ellis and Mark Childs (2006), trainees from SMEs concluded that interactivity is an important part of the effectiveness of a video training model. Interactivity encourages viewers to pay attention to the information and then act on what they have learned. In addition, interactive media allows the participant to adapt the information to adhere to their cognitive needs. These adaptations can include pausing, replaying, slowing down, or speeding up the video. As a result the participants are able to ingest the information in a way that works best for them, leading to more efficient means of understanding (Schwan & Riempp, 2004).

Please respond to the following prompts. You can either share your thoughts in seminar or through this discussion board space. Responses should be around 150-200 words and make explicit engagement with the class materials for this class. If you are unable to attend seminar, you may also respond to one of your peer's posts and make explicit engagement with the class materials (to get full points). Over the course of the semester we have discussed concepts like "choosing disability" (Clare, 2017), "brillliant imperfection" (Clare, 2017), "deaf gain" (Hurley, 2016) "sites of shame as sites of resistance" (Erickson, 2013), crip erasure (Kafai 2021), "access intimacy" (Mingus, 2017) and "leaving evidence (Mingus 2011). In discussing the transformative potential of access intimacy Mingus writes, “The power of access intimacy is that it reorients our approach from one where disabled people are expected to squeeze into able bodied people’s world, and instead calls upon able bodied people to inhabit our world. It challenges able bodied supremacy by valuing disability—not running from disability—but moving towards it. It asserts that there is value in disabled people’s lived experiences. In this way, it reframes both how and where solidarity can be practiced. Access intimacy is shared work by all people involved, it is no longer the familiar story of disabled people having to do all the work to build the conversations and piece together the relationship and trust that we know we need for access—that we know we need in order to survive” (Mingus, 2017,np). Using specific examples from the course materials for this week discuss the ways that these different concepts are all enactments of Disability Justice and/or the radical model (Withers 2012) contributing towards building crip futures. Feel free to choose one in specific and make sure that you define the concept using the course texts.

In what ways could the financial situation of a person with a disability impact their physical and psychological health and wellbeing?