Thomas And Smith Assess The Definition Of Disability

Thomas and Smith (2009), examine definitions of disability, they put definitions of disability into two board categories: medical or social. The medical definitions are also called personal tragedy category definitions. The medical definitions of disability domi¬nated understanding about disability for most of the twentieth century, particularly in Western countries. It suggests that disability is an impairment that is owned by an individual and which results in a loss or limitation of function or some other 'defect '. In 1980, the definitions of impairment, handicap and disability ware introduced by World Health Organization (WHO), which came to be widely used to apply much social and welfare policy and professional practice. An important example of the dominant views of disability was the work conducted by the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) the WHO combined their deification of disease with one that considered disability, impairment and handicap together. These terms were defined by the WHO in the following way:

Impairment: Any loss or abnormality of, psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function. (WHO, 1980: 27)
Disability: Any restriction or lack of

It ignores the aspects in which disabilities and other sources of social division such as gender and social class is socially constructed. It also ignores the complex ways in different societies over time and the change of disability on perceptions and experiences. Nor, for that point, the ICIDH definitions have come to be defined by medical profession and other (non-) disabled groups who have a greater ability to define what ought to constitute as 'disability ' and 'impairment ', which because of their generally more advantage positions relative to other less advantage