Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Student Success and the Social Model of Disability

Posted by anne.grey | Start the discussion

Presenters: Ira McKinzie, Shaun Williams, Shannon Pagano, and Ash Perrine.

Summary

In this presentation, members of PCC’s Accessible Education and Disability Resources team examine how the social model of disability can help educators create more inclusive learning environments. Unlike the medical model, which often treats disability as an individual problem to be fixed, the social model focuses on barriers within environments, policies, communication, and attitudes. This shift encourages educators to ask what can be changed around a student rather than what needs to be changed about the student.

The session identifies four major types of barriers: attitudinal, environmental, institutional, and communication. Examples include low expectations, inaccessible physical spaces, policies that create unnecessary obstacles, limited access to alternative formats, and assumptions about what disabled students can or cannot do. Presenters emphasize that removing these barriers benefits not only students with documented disabilities but often improves the learning environment for everyone.

The presentation also places the social model within the history of disability rights and disability justice. Participants learn about the contributions of disability rights leaders and the movement from basic legal access toward a broader focus on equity, belonging, and full participation. Disability justice encourages educators to recognize that all people have strengths and needs and that disability intersects with race, gender, class, sexuality, and other identities.

In the classroom, applying the social model can include providing course materials in advance, offering multiple ways for students to demonstrate learning, using accessible formats, building flexibility into assignments, and designing courses with a wider range of learners in mind from the beginning. Presenters stress that formal accommodations remain important, but accommodations alone cannot create full access. Inclusive course design, strong relationships, self-advocacy opportunities, and a sense of belonging all contribute to student persistence and success.

Slides: Student Success & the Social Model of Disability in Higher Education

Presentation Outcomes

• Distinguish between the medical model and social model of disability and explain how each shapes approaches to accessibility and student support.
• Identify attitudinal, environmental, institutional, and communication barriers that can limit participation for students with disabilities.
• Recognize key developments in the disability rights and disability justice movements and their influence on access to higher education.
• Explain how belonging, relationship building, academic mastery, and self-advocacy can support the persistence and success of students with disabilities.
• Apply social model and disability justice principles by focusing on removing barriers and recognizing student strengths rather than viewing the student as the problem.
• Use inclusive teaching strategies such as providing materials in advance, offering multiple ways to demonstrate learning, and building flexibility into course design.
• Recognize the limits of relying only on formal accommodations and consider how Universal Design for Learning and person-centered approaches can improve access for a broader range of students.

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