Easing the tension between medical and social models of disability: the biopsychosocial model of disability

Teachers and allied health professionals with prior qualifications in education, therapy, psychology, or law may already have clear views about disability and diagnoses that come from their own personal experience, from their family, or from the work that they do. Yet whether professionals have direct experience or not, how individuals come to perceive disability is significantly influenced by the culture they live in because it is one’s culture that dictates what one defines as normal and abnormal, and this then influences how they respond.