Yorkshire Coast & Ryedale Disability Forum
The Yorkshire Coast and Ryedale Disability Forum is a user-led organisation made up of disabled people, carers, disability organisations, councillors and statutory organisations. The forum is one of six local disability forums, who are all part of North Yorkshire Disability Forum.
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Local disability forums support the North Yorkshire Disability Forum by raising issues and providing local knowledge. They also liaise with local service providers to help them make their services more accessible for disabled people.
Key Aims
The YCRDF will be an independent user led forum that creates an opportunity for disabled people, their families, and disability organisations in the Ryedale and the North Yorkshire Coast area to come together:
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1. To improve the lives of people with physical and/or sensory impairment in Ryedale and the North Yorkshire Coast.
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2. To act as a consultative body for local statutory, health and voluntary organisations to get advice and support so they are better able to understand the experience of disabled people and the impact of plans, services and facilities on the lives of disabled people.
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3. To work within the social model of disability.
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4. To provide a collective and stronger voice on all issues of disability to achieve positive outcomes.
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5. To be an active part of the North Yorkshire Disability Forum and support its work.
The Social Model of Disability
The forum works from the social model of disability.
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The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised, rather than by a person’s impairment or difference. It looks at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people. When barriers are removed, disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives.
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Disabled people developed the social model of disability because the traditional medical model did not explain their personal experience of disability or help to develop more inclusive ways of living.
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(An impairment is defined as the limitation of a person’s physical, mental or sensory function on a long-term basis.)
Changing Attitudes Towards Disabled People
Barriers are not just physical. Attitudes found in society, based on prejudice or stereotype (also called disablism), also disable people from having equal opportunities to be part of society.
Medical Model
Of Disability
The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised. The medical model of disability says people are disabled by their impairments or differences.
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Under the medical model, these impairments or differences should be ‘fixed’ or changed by medical and other treatments, even when the impairment or difference does not cause pain or illness.
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The medical model looks at what is ‘wrong’ with the person and not what the person needs. It creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their own lives.
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Social model of disability: some examples
• A wheelchair user wants to get into a building with a step at the entrance. Under a social model solution, a ramp would be added to the entrance so that the wheelchair user is free to go into the building immediately. Using the medical model, there are very few solutions to help wheelchair users to climb stairs, which excludes them from many essential and leisure activities.
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• A teenager with a learning difficulty wants to work towards living independently in their own home but is unsure how to pay the rent. Under the social model, the person would be supported so that they are enabled to pay rent and live in their own home. Under a medical model, the young person might be expected to live in a communal home.
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• A child with a visual impairment wants to read the latest best-selling book to chat about with their sighted friends. Under the medical model, there are very few solutions but a social model solution ensures full text audio-recordings are available when the book is first published. This means children with visual impairments can join in with cultural activities on an equal basis with everyone else.