David Gordon's scientific contributions

... Although this model has a long-standing history, other models have developed in response to it. The functional or interactional model suggests that individuals' environments can be arranged to either facilitate individuals' capabilities or, instead, amplify limitations (Smart, 2009); this has influenced the development of advances in special education such as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework (e.g., Meyer et al., 2014), which offers ways for teachers to re-think the activities and learning environments they create so as to fully include students with a wide range of learning strengths and needs. Some researchers (e.g., Ferri & Connor, 2010) employ a third model of disability, the social/sociopolitical model, which suggests that the notion of "disability" arises only when social structures are constructed in ways that emphasize difference, promote stigma, and facilitate discrimination. ...