A common medical understanding of disability is that people with disabilities often report feeling excluded, undervalued, pressured to fit in, and/or be treated as if they were globally incapacitated. People with disabilities often express frustration when they are met with pitying attitudes or incredulity if they speak about anything positive related to living with their conditions. For many people with disabilities, the main disadvantage they experience does not stem directly from their bodies, but rather from their unwelcome reception in the world, in terms of how physical structures, institutional norms, and social attitudes exclude and/or denigrate them.
Having laws such as Sec 504 and The Americans with Disability Act helps to provide protections for individuals with disabilities.
Rethinking disability: The Social Model of disability and chronic disease, sara Goering, 2015
