Editing Social model of disability (section)

== Social construction of disability ==

The social construction of disability comes from a [[paradigm]] that suggests that [[society]]'s beliefs about a particular community, group, or population are grounded in the [[power structure]]s inherent in that society at any given time. The social expectations surrounding concepts, such as disability, thereby enabling a social construct around what society deems disabled and healthy, often based more on observations or value judgements rather than scientific discovery, which can perpetuate biases.<ref name=":2" /> 

Ideas surrounding disability stem from societal attitudes, often connected to who is deserving or undeserving, and deemed [[productive]] to society at any given time. For example, in the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]], a person's [[moral]] behavior established disability. Disability was a divine [[punishment]] or [[side effect]] of a moral failing; being physically or biologically different was not enough to be considered disabled. Only during the [[Age of Enlightenment]] did society change its [[definition]] of disability to be more related to [[biology]]. However, what most<!-- elite? --> [[Western Europe]]ans considered to be healthy determined the new biological definition of [[health]].<ref name="DavisLennardDSR">{{Cite book
| title = The Disability Studies Reader
| last = Davis
| first = Lennard
| publisher = Routledge 2nd edition
| year = 2006
| isbn = 0415953340
| location = 
| pages = 197
}}</ref> 

=== 2000 Paralympics ===
While the Olympics were covered live throughout the entire event, the Paralympics were not seen as important enough for the same live coverage before the initial showing. By separating the Olympics and Paralympics, and thus indicating that one is less valuable than the other, disability is socially constructed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goggin|first1=Gerard|title=Digital disability: the social construction of disability in new media|last2=Newell|first2=Christopher|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2003|page=91|isbn=0-7425-1844-2}}</ref>