In short, the medical model sees disability as a problem with the individual – whereas the social model sees barriers from an inaccessible society instead. As a society, we seem to be moving towards a future of the social model, with most organisations for disabled people preferring it, as well as the government equalities office endorsing it.

The medical model uses the terms "Disability", "Disease", "Dysfunctional", "Disorder" to categorize each and every type of symptoms, differences in mechanisms, below average based on standardized measure of functioning, that causes challenges in life.

medical model of autism, and to older narratives: the social model. The social model separates impairment—physical or mental differences that may limit certain activities—from disability. It defines disability as a form of social oppression: the ways in which society limits or excludes (disables) people

In the medical model, autism is a medical disorder. This model has been criticized for over-focusing on what the person cannot do instead of what they can do. In a social model, autism is a different ‘way-of-being’ that results in autistic persons being excluded from society because they often behave differently from the ‘norm’.

This paper is going to describe and discuss what autism is and how it is understood within the medical and social models of disability and consider the implications of these different...