(Dis)ability paper guide: marginalisation and social work
Why society marginalised disabled people historically, and what social workers do about it using the Valerie case. This guide covers explaining the history through the models of disability rather than through attitudes, answering the good-life question directly, and writing the second half intersectionally.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 6, 2026
Two questions, and only one of them is historical
Two questions, and they sit at different levels. The first asks why society has marginalised people with varying abilities historically — a structural, historical explanation. The second asks what social workers do about it, grounded in specific examples from the Valerie case. The common failure is to answer the first at length, because the prompt supplies so much material for it, and then to answer the second with a paragraph about advocacy and empowerment that could be attached to any client group. Give each question its own section, and make the second one carry case detail — the brief asks for specific examples, which is a requirement you can either meet or visibly not meet, and markers check the ones that are countable first. Two headed sections also stop the historical material from crowding out the practice half, which is where the marks for application sit.
The historical question has a real answer, and it is not that people were unkind. Marginalisation followed from a model: for most of the period the brief describes, disability was understood as an individual defect located in the body, to be cured, corrected, contained or prevented. Institutionalisation, compulsory sterilisation and the killing of disabled people were the policy consequences of that model, not departures from it, and they were carried out by medical and welfare systems rather than in spite of them. The social model reversed the location: impairment is in the body, but disability is produced by environments, buildings, policies and attitudes. Naming the two models and the shift between them is what converts the prompt's list of atrocities into an explanation. It also gives the rest of your answer somewhere to stand.
Model | Where the problem is located | What follows from it |
|---|---|---|
Moral / religious | In the person, as fault or fate | Concealment, charity, exclusion |
Medical | In the body, as defect | Cure, correction, institutions, prevention |
Social | In the environment and attitudes | Access, rights, adjustment of settings |
Biopsychosocial | In the interaction between the two | Function assessed in context |
The prompt's hardest question is the last one, and it is worth answering directly: who has the right to decide what makes a good life, and how is that decision made. It is not rhetorical. Every historical practice the brief lists rested on somebody outside the person making a judgement about the value of that person's life, and the same judgement recurs whenever quality of life is assessed by a professional rather than reported by the person living it. The disability rights position — nothing about us without us — is a direct answer, and it converts an abstract question into a practice standard you can then apply to Valerie. Say who holds the judgement in your answer and what would have to change for the person to hold it instead. It is also the cleanest bridge into the second half of the assignment.
The second question contains a requirement that is easy to skim past: support clients with varying abilities while recognising and honouring those clients' other identity characteristics. That is an instruction to write intersectionally. A response that treats disability as the whole of a person's identity reproduces in miniature exactly the reduction the first half of the assignment is criticising. Valerie has a gender, a race, an age, a class position, a family role and a sexuality, and each of those changes what the disability means in practice — which services she can reach, how she is read in a waiting room, whose account of her situation is believed. Pull at least two of those from the case and show them interacting rather than listing them. One worked interaction is worth more than a list of six characteristics.
One thing to handle deliberately rather than by accident: the language. The assignment uses varying abilities, and its own title writes disability as (Dis)ability, so the framing is already flagged as contested. It is worth knowing that many disabled people reject euphemisms of the differently abled kind as a form of erasure, and that preference is split between person-first language, which the social work profession has largely adopted, and identity-first language, which autistic and Deaf communities in particular commonly prefer. There is no single correct answer, and demonstrating that you know the disagreement exists — and that the person's own preference decides it — is a stronger move than picking one and using it silently. Ask what Valerie calls herself, if the case says, and use that. Where a case is silent, say which convention you are following and why, in a clause. It costs you six words and it demonstrates the cultural competence the second question is asking about.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Explain a pattern of social exclusion through the model that produced it rather than through attitudes.
- 02Apply the social model of disability to a specific practice case.
- 03Write about a client intersectionally rather than through a single identity.
- 04Recognise that language about disability is contested and that the person's preference decides it.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation Hi Class, Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts. Contact me if you have any questions. Important information on Writing a Discussion Question Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references) There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article. Include in-text citations in your response Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information Follow APA-7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week. Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references) Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count. Follow APA 7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points. Here are some helpful links Student paper example Citing Sources The Writing Center is a great resource Welcome to class Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to. Assignment (Dis)ability paper I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you. Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted. If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations. Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements. Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week. I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
What the post has to contain
- 01An explanation of why society has historically marginalised those with varying abilities.
- 02An explanation of the role of social workers in supporting clients with varying abilities.
- 03Recognition of clients' other identity characteristics alongside ability status.
- 04Specific examples drawn from the Valerie case study.
- 05At least two references.
From the models to Valerie, section by section
The models, briefly
Name the moral, medical and social models and where each locates the problem.
What followed from the medical model
Connect institutionalisation, sterilisation and killing to the model that justified them.
Why disabled people are still not visible
Address the prompt's observation about how rarely disability is seen in public space.
Who decides what a good life is
Answer the prompt's final question with a position and a practice implication.
The social work role, in Valerie's case
Set out what the social worker does, illustrated with specific case detail.
Her other identities
Show at least two identity characteristics interacting with ability status.
Where the history and the professional standards are documented
Recommended databases
- Walden University Library
- Social Work Abstracts
- Journal of Social Work Education
- World Health Organization
- National Association of Social Workers
Search sequence
- 1.Start from the assigned Gilson and DePoy reading, which is about how disability is theorised in social work education specifically.
- 2.Read a primary account of the historical programmes rather than a secondary summary, since the scale is the point.
- 3.Take the professional obligations from the code of ethics rather than paraphrasing them.
- 4.Check current guidance on disability language before writing, and note where it disagrees with itself.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Code of Ethics
National Association of Social Workers · 2021
The professional obligations the second half of the answer rests on — self-determination, cultural competence, social and political action. Cite the specific standard rather than the code in general.
- 02
Euthanasia Program and Aktion T4
Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · 2026
Primary documentation of the killing programme the prompt refers to, including that it was administered through medical institutions. That administrative detail is what makes the medical-model argument rather than an argument about cruelty.
- 03
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
World Health Organization · 2026
The biopsychosocial framing that formally superseded a purely medical classification. Use it to show the model shift is institutional and current, not just an academic position.
- 04
Disability Language Style Guide
National Center on Disability and Journalism, Arizona State University · 2026
Where the person-first and identity-first disagreement is set out term by term. Cite it when you explain your language choice rather than making one silently.
- 05
Theoretical Approaches to Disability Content in Social Work Education
Journal of Social Work Education, Taylor & Francis · 2002
The assigned reading, and specifically about how disability is theorised inside social work education. It is the source that connects the historical half of the answer to the practice half.
Before the post goes up
Common mistakes
- Explaining the history through prejudice alone, with no model of disability behind it.
- Treating institutionalisation and sterilisation as failures of the system rather than as its policy.
- Answering the social work half with generic advocacy language that would fit any client group.
- Omitting the specific case examples the prompt requires by name.
- Writing disability as though it were a client's only identity.
- Leaving the good-life question unanswered because it reads as rhetorical.
- Using contested language without acknowledging that it is contested.
- Describing the social model without ever applying it to Valerie's actual circumstances.
Submission checklist
- At least one named model of disability structures the historical explanation.
- The shift from the medical to the social model is stated, not implied.
- The good-life question is answered with a position on who decides.
- Two or more of Valerie's identity characteristics are shown interacting.
- Specific case examples appear in the social work section, not only the history.
- The language choice is made explicitly rather than by default.
- Two or more references.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.