Constructing disability

Disability is a multi-faceted discursive construct shaped by diverse motivations and perspectives. This chapter characterizes how various disability models—ranging from individual and medical to social and rights-based approaches—are discursively constructed and interconnected. Examining these institutional models situates the present study within broader historical and structural contexts, while also highlighting how visual discourses of disability intersect with other axes of marginalization, including race, gender, sexuality, age, geography and poverty. This chapter also establishes how the these perspectives can be connected to critical visual semiotics and critical discourse analysis, where disability has been communicated as a resemiotization of social and identity construction that segregates people. The chapter then highlights emerging sub-discourses of disability , which are discourses of deficit , shaming and othering . Drawing on theories from disability studies, sociology and critical discourse, the chapter situates disability discourses within both Global North and Global South perspectives, paying particular attention to concepts of ‘ableism’ and ‘disablism’, with references to issues of rights, inclusion and agency in the Malaysian context.