Abstract
This is a conceptual theoretical study to reflect upon disability and some basic concepts that are involved in its profiling. The scope of the article is to broaden the outlook upon disability removing it from a description that reduces it to an ailment. For this purpose, we situated the Disability Studies historically presenting the Medical and Social Models of Disability and problematized the concepts of autonomy and normality. These concepts and their correlated aspects – independence, functionality and the norm – are used as a tacit touchstone to differentiate some bodily variations that are identified as different lifestyles from others that are often called disabilities. We conclude by stating that disability can be analyzed based on other interpretations that do not construe it as a synonym for ailment if we consider the notions of interdependence, normativity and creation of the self in the world as basic concepts to describe it.
Disability; Medical model of disability; Social model of disability; Autonomy; Normality