Reshaping understandings of disability associated with age-related vision loss (ARVL): incorporating critical disability perspectives into research and practice

Purpose: In this paper, we have sought to stimulate a critical dialog regarding the ways in which disability has been largely conceptualized and studied in literature addressing age-related vision loss (ARVL). We suggest an expansion of this largely biomedically informed research area to include alternative frameworks, namely critical disability perspectives. Method: To demonstrate the potential contributions of adopting a critical disability approach to enhance understandings of ARVL, this article outlined the primary tenets of the biomedical and social models of disability; the key aims, emphases, and assumptions of critical disability perspectives; and provided examples of how such an approach would lead to new research foci in the study of ARVL. Results: The paper highlighted four qualities of critical disability perspectives that future ARVL research should ascribe to, including (a) a focus on interdependence over traditional notions of independence; (b)a broader conceptualization of 'normalcy'; (c) the influence of language as a means of describing or labeling disabled persons; and (d) the influence of the socio-political environment in the creation and sustainment of disability. Conclusions: This paper encouraged the incorporation of critical disability perspectives to provide new ways of conceptualizing, researching, writing about, and practicing in relation to ARVL.