The social model of disability emerged from the work of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) who published The Fundamental Principles of Disability in 1976. Central to this were two themes: that it was the experience and expertise of disabled people that was crucial in developing a true understanding of the phenomenon of disability and that the main problems of disabled people were externally located in the disabling barriers and social restrictions that they faced. Building upon these themes and the rigid distinction between impair ment and disability that the Fundamental Principles insisted upon, I further developed the social model as the basis of more appropriate professional practice as part of my own work in teaching disability issues to social workers (Oliver, 1983). Subsequently the social model became the accepted vehicle for the promotion and development of disability equality training (Campbell and Gillespie-Sells, 1991) and the basis of the collective self-organization of disabled people into a powerful political movement (Campbell and Oliver, 1996). Outside of social work, the impact of the social model of disability on professional consciousness, let alone practice, has been somewhat limited.
