The Capability Approach and Disability

The definition of disability is of interest to disability policymakers and analysts because it has fundamental implications for eligibility for public programs, for the scope of legislation, and for the way disability prevalence is measured. The purpose of this article is to assess how an approach developed in economics to analyze issues related to the standard of living, the so-called capability approach, may help us understand disability at the conceptual level. The article first summarizes different theoretical models of disability (the medical model, the social model, the Nagi model, and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health of the World Health Organization) and then…