Book Review: Disability and Practice: Applying the Social Model

Disability and Practice: Applying the Social Model
Edited by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer, ISBN 0952845091,
£16.50 (including p&p).
Available from CDS Publications, 0113 343 4407

STAR RATING: 4/5

Professionals struggling to implement social models of disability
should read this book, writes Trish Hafford-Letchfield.

Its message is clear: for the social model to work, you have to buy
into the whole thing. Combining aspects of social model frameworks
with other models will not succeed in making independent living
practical for all disabled people.

Drawing on debates about disability, contributors present case
studies to help readers understand the need for radical change and
full civil rights for disabled people. They argue that this cannot
be planned in isolation or undertaken separately from wider
contexts.

This book highlights failures to link individual needs to
structural barriers yet provides positive examples of best
practice. It would be helpful for anybody working in the field of
social inclusion or for professionals following social policy or
disability studies.

Trish Hafford-Letchfield is a senior lecturer at London
South Bank University