What is the Social Model of Disability?

The social model sees having an impairment as normal. What is not normal is to be discriminated against because you have an impairment. This is very different from the traditional view that disability is essentially about "what’s wrong with you?"

The social model believes we are disabled by negative social attitudes and physical barriers not by the impairment itself.

What are Human Rights?

Human rights are the fundamental, universal and indivisible principles by which every human being can claim justice and equality.

As disability describes the barriers faced by people with impairments to achieving equality and justice, and because disabled people are human beings too, it follows that disability is a human rights issue.

The NCODP is founded on a social-model understanding of disability.