Social Policy and Disability: Some Theoretical Issues

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Abstract
This paper suggests that current ways of thinking about disability are inadequate, both theoretically and as a basis for social policy. The main reason for this is that most writers have remained locked within a ‘personal tragedy theory of disability’ and have failed to examine the concept of disability critically. Even those writers who have attempted to take disability seriously have failed to move beyond a traditional framework and have subsequently produced sterile accounts. The final section of the paper begins to suggest what a social theory of disability might look like.

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