the social model of disability positions physical, intellectual, psychological, sensory, and emotional variations as natural and therefore requires societal changes in the response to those variations. the problem therefore resides not within the individual with impairments, but in the attitudes toward and treatment of people with disabilities. a dse perspective is grounded in the belief that a collective social response to disability has resulted in systematic inequality, marginalization, discrimination, and oppression. there is also the recognition that disability is both a form of individuation and group identification. because individual identities are complex and intersect with other identity categories (i.e. race, gender, social class, sexual orientation), there are varied ways that individuals may identify themselves as disabled.