12 minutes
Four words, kept apart Impairment, disability, access need and barrier are not synonyms. Keeping them apart is what lets you fix the right thing.
What you’ll be able to do Distinguish impairment, disability, access need and disabling barrier in a real example, and restate a problem so the barrier, not the person, is the subject. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: Which rewrite puts the attention where the fix is? Document a next step for Four words, kept apart: Find one sentence in a recent email, note or plan where a person is the subject of the problem, and rewrite it so the barrier is the subject. Where the distinction comes from Disabled activists in the disability rights movement made a claim that changed how access is understood: they were disabled less by their bodies than by steps, small print, rules and attitudes. A person who uses a wheelchair is not disabled by the chair. She is disabled by the building with steps and no ramp. This is the social model of disability, and it is the working model behind accessibility law and good design.
It does not replace medical care. A person's health is their own business and their clinician's. What the social model changes is the question an organization asks. Instead of “what is wrong with this person,” it asks “what in our design, policy or practice stops this person from taking part, and what will we change.”
Four words keep the thinking honest. Impairment : a difference in body or mind. Disability : the experience produced when that difference meets an environment built without it. Access need : what the person requires to take part. Barrier : the design, rule, gap or attitude that creates the need. Barriers belong to the organization. So do the fixes.
The same situation, four ways Impairment Disability Access need Barrier
Marcus has a traumatic brain injury that affects short-term memory and processing speed.
In a fast intake interview with no written follow-up, Marcus loses the thread, misses a deadline and is closed for non-response.
Written summaries, one question at a time, a longer appointment, a reminder call before the deadline.
An interview script designed for speed, no written follow-up, a single deadline with automatic closure. Every one of these is the agency's to change.
Make the barrier the subject of the sentence What you can change You control the grammar of the problem statement in a note, a plan or a meeting.
What to watch for Do not write or say “she cannot,” “he is unable,” “they failed to.” Write what in the process stopped them.
Your next step This week, rewrite one problem statement so the barrier is the subject and an owner is named.
Fact, barrier or assumption? Ana uses a screen reader and asks for documents as tagged PDFs or plain text.
Choose a category Person-centered fact Barrier Assumption The scheduling page cannot be used with a keyboard.
Choose a category Person-centered fact Barrier Assumption People with intellectual disabilities cannot make their own decisions about services.
Choose a category Person-centered fact Barrier Assumption The renewal packet is fourteen pages of legal language with a ten-day window.
Choose a category Person-centered fact Barrier Assumption He looked fine at the interview, so the accommodation request is probably not necessary.
Choose a category Person-centered fact Barrier Assumption Jordan asked that the agenda be sent two days before the meeting.
Choose a category Person-centered fact Barrier Assumption Check matches Reset Keep them apart Impairment
A difference in body or mind. Not the organization's to fix, and not something a person owes anyone an explanation for.
Disability
What happens when an impairment meets a world built without it. Produced by the meeting, not by the person.
Access need
What the person requires to take part: captions, a ramp, more time, a written summary, a quieter room.
Barrier
The specific design, rule, gap or attitude that creates the need. Owned by the organization. Fixable.
Carry this forward An impairment is a difference in body or mind; a disability is what happens when that difference meets a world built without it; an access need is what the person requires to take part; a barrier is the thing that creates the need.
This way of seeing came from disabled activists who insisted that they were disabled by steps, attitudes and rules more than by their bodies. It is the basis of the social model of disability.
The medical view is still needed for health care. It is the wrong tool for deciding how to run a meeting, write a form or design a lobby.
A sorting exercise that separates facts, barriers and assumptions, and a rewritten problem statement.
Find one sentence in a recent email, note or plan where a person is the subject of the problem, and rewrite it so the barrier is the subject.
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