Disability in the United States

IU Themester

In this episode, Dr. Benjamin Irvin discusses the history of disability in the United States. He explains the medical model of disability vs. the social model. Under the social model, society’s views of disability change, making disability a concept open to historic analysis. Dr. Irvin discusses views of disability and disability healthcare in the United States, starting from the Revolutionary War. Irvin’s conversation touches on issues of ableism such as barriers to access, the presumption of incompetence, invisibility disability, and the prevalence of ableist vocabulary in everyday life.