Disabilities are not diseases!
The questions of the definition of "person with a disability" and how persons with disabilities perceive themselves are knotty and complex. It is no accident that these questions are emerging at the same time that the status of persons with disabilities in society is changing dramatically. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)1 is the cause of some of these changes, as well as the result of the
corresponding shift in public policy.2 Questions of status and identity are at the heart of disability policy. One of the central goals of the disability rights movement, which can claim primary political responsibility for the ADA, is to move American society to a new and more positive understanding of what it means to have a disability. Part I of this Article describes the four historical and social models of disability, as defined by disability policy scholars. Part II includes an analysis of the ADA definition of disability and case law interpreting that definition. Part III describes the United States Supreme Court's recent interpretation of disability under the ADA and the reaction of the disability community to this interpretation.(Kaplan, Deborah)