Hunt (1966) Union of the Physically Impaired against Segregation distinguishes between impairment, which relates to individually based bio-physical conditions, and disability, ‘which is about the exclusion of disabled people from “normal” or mainstream society’. ‘The dominant societal stereotype of disability as a “pitiful” state reinforces the view that people with disabilities are somehow “less than human” ’ (R. Imrie 1996). ‘The biggest obstacle to disabled people’s meaningful inclusion into mainstream community life is negative public attitudes’ (Barnes in L. Barton and M. Oliver, eds 1997). Wilton (2004) TIBG 29, 4 outlines the multiple strategies of control of the disabled in the workplace; notably the denial of access to accommodation. B. Gleeson (1998) sees space as ‘a social artefact that can be used to disable, rather than enable people with physical impairments’. I. Kawachi and L. F. Berkman, eds (2003) explore the way physical and cognitive disability affect and are affected by a neighbourhood’s physical and social environment. V. Chouinard, E. Hall, and R. Wilton, eds (2010) consider the ‘spatial interpretation of disability’ in a strongly recommended text.

http://www.daa.org.uk/index.php?page=social-model-or-unsociable-muddle Disability awareness in action.