Barriers hindering the involvement of the handicapped in social life. An attempt at formulating a new theoretical approach.

At the end of the XX century significant changes in the rehabilitation practice took place. The traditional, medical model of rehabilitation was replaced with the social model. The development of rehabilitation practice required modifications in the approach to the problems of the handicapped. Therefore, the article discusses the results of research which defined life problems experienced currently by the handicapped. As a consequence of the conducted analysis, a proposition has been presented which suggests that the process of adjusting to disability should be interpreted as an individual and linear sequence of changes which lead to varied rehabilitation outcomes. On the basis of this model the article proposes specific principles of influencing psychologically the handicapped in order to increase their involvement in the rehabilitation process.