Disability Paradigm Shifts: Models, Perspectives, and Philosophical Orientations Driving Change – Introduction

In this chapter, we introduce Part III of the handbook and contextualise the chapters within it. We begin by explaining the overall aim of the part. Put simply, this is to explore and highlight the connection between positive social change and ways of thinking about and understanding ‘disability’. We then introduce two ‘models’, or ways of understanding disability, which have had a particularly powerful impact on generating and informing initiatives to enhance full inclusion and participation and to reduce disability-related oppression in all its forms. We then introduce and contextualise three chapters in this part which critically reflect on how these models have been put to work in particular places and particular times. This chapter closes with some brief concluding reflections.