The Social Model

In the early eighties I had just been kicked out of university for being a disabled person — it was legal back then. I lost my way really; what I’d been brought up with, the idea that if you’re determined enough you can do anything, had been turned on its head and I didn’t know how to root myself. So, I was very aimless for a while.

Then one day, I went to a community action workshop about disability equality, an area I’d been interested in, but at the time I didn’t know where to place myself in relation to all that. Was I a disabled person or wasn’t I? There were two women there who talked about the Social Model of Disability and in the space of seconds the whole trajectory of my life changed…