Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP) is a Disabled People’s Organisation, which means it is controlled and run by disabled people only. All Executive Council members and staff positions are only available to disabled people. This is because as an organisation we feel it is essential for disabled people to have our own voice and our own control of our organisation.
Presents a system for classifying impairments, disabilities, and handicaps with the aim of improving information on the consequences of disease. Three independent classifications are presented. Impairments are classified according to abnormalities of body structure and appearance or disturbances of organ or system function resulting from any cause (disturbances at the organ level). The classification of disabilities reflects the consequences of impairment in terms of functional performance and activity by the individual (disturbances at the individual level).
The social model of disability has been with us for a while now and we are pleased that it is thriving and gaining ground. We believe that even though we may be making some progress with the acceptance of the social model of disability, whereby disabled people define disability, non-disabled professionals are controlling the definition of impairment and will continue to do so, and this threatens the development of the social model of disability.
The impact of any disability policy depends on the conceptual model of disability upon which that policy rests. For the past quarter century of disability policymaking, culminating in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the dominant paradigm of disability has been a minority group model. That model identifies discrimination as the primary barrier facing people with disabilities in their desire for full social participation, and it proposes civil rights strategies as the proper policy response to that barrier.
James Charlton has produced a ringing indictment of disability oppression, which, he says, is rooted in degradation, dependency, and powerlessness and is experienced in some form by five hundred million persons throughout the world who have physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities. Nothing About Us Without Us is the first book in the literature on disability to provide a theoretical overview of disability oppression that shows its similarities to, and differences from, racism, sexism, and colonialism.