With the medical model, which emerges in the early 20th century, disability is understood primarily as an individual impairment to be treated.You might think, “Great, doctors want to improve the lives of disabled people rather than to make them disappear!” But the main goal of this medicalization movement is to rehabilitate disabled bodies in order to convert them into productive labor.

“The French conception of disability remains strongly influenced by this history and is slow to move beyond this model.”