Minority model: from liberal to neoliberal futures of disability

The coordinates of the theory underpinning the disability minority model developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Our task here is to identify developments in the foundational claims of this approach. The minority model gives primary positioning to disability as located in the environment rather than the person. It also solidifies a rights-based argument about the ability of people with disabilities to actively participate alongside able-bodied people as full citizens on the basis of equal access. In making this argument, the minority model forwards a concept of disability identity as mirroring the desires of those with normative embodiments that may no longer prove viable for a working politics.