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CPACC: Disabilities, Models of Disability, and the Disability Community

CPACC · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Disabilities, Models of Disability, and the Disability Community

What this domain tests

Domain 1 asks you to distinguish impairment from disability, compare models, and use respectful, community-preferred language. CPACC questions often present a workplace or service scenario and ask which model is being applied.

Core concepts

  • Impairment is a difference in body function or structure; disability is the interaction between impairment and environmental or attitudinal barriers (UN CRPD framing).
  • Medical model: locates the problem in the individual, aims to cure or normalize.
  • Social model: locates barriers in society - stairs, policies, attitudes - and aims to remove them.
  • Biopsychosocial model: integrates biological, psychological, and social factors (ICF).
  • Charity, economic, cultural, and human-rights models frame disability as pity, productivity cost, identity, or rights entitlement respectively.
  • The ICF classifies body functions, activities, participation, environmental factors, and personal factors.

Language and community

Person-first (“person with a disability”) is common in policy; many Deaf, autistic, and blind people prefer identity-first (“Deaf person,” “autistic person”). Ask, don’t assume. Deaf culture is a linguistic minority, not merely a hearing deficit. About 16% of the global population has significant disability (WHO); about 1 in 4 US adults (CDC). Invisible disabilities - chronic pain, mental health, learning disabilities - are common.

Worked example

A manager says, “Your impairment means you can’t do this job,” and denies a remote-work request. The reasoning: this is the medical model - the barrier is framed as the worker’s deficit. Under the social model, the barrier is the rigid location policy. A reasonable adjustment (remote work) removes the barrier, and the employee’s capability is assessed on actual job tasks.

Traps

Equating disability with wheelchair use; treating person-first as universally correct; assuming disability is static; overlooking intersectionality and invisible disabilities.