The Social Model of Disability has shifted the focus from the medical nature of disabilities to socially constructed barriers to living and a focus on rights and inclusion, yet is not universally accepted as applicable in all contexts within the Global South, given variations in material conditions, cultural values, colonial history, and systems of social support. The study uses a qualitative critical literature review of academic publications, international reports, policy documents and grey literature published primarily from 2006 to 2026, and adopts an intersectional and postcolonial thematic approach to interrogate the structural, cultural, economic and policy barriers to disabled people in the global south. The results show that poverty, poor health, low quality health services and infrastructure, state fragility, informal economies, and colonial histories are frequently disablers. The review also highlights the conflict between Western individualism and relational notions of personhood as found in Indigenous ways of knowing, Ubuntu and family-based support. In addition, disability intersects with gender, caste, religion, and rural-urban inequalities, resulting in different kinds of exclusion. The study concludes that the Social Model is still useful for disability rights and anti-discrimination work, but cannot be a universal model. Therefore, in the Global South, a decolonized, pluralistic, context-sensitive, and social and medical lens, including Indigenous knowledge, relationality, and material realities, is needed to foster disability justice.
Keywords: Social Model of Disability; Global South; Disability Studies; Decoloniality; Indigenous Knowledge Systems
05-Sep-2026
