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Hi Everyone.

I am writing a term paper for a fourth year course in Social Work with Disabilities, and obtained permission from Ron to seek input from members here. Some of the questions the paper will be addressing include:

- should obesity be considered a disability?

- if so, what criteria would constitute which obese person qualifies and which doesn't?

- in light of the recent forum discussions on obesity as an epidemic, it is a medical model. Could obesity be classified as only epidemic, or can an epidemic also be classed as a disability?

- what are the implications of classification of obesity being epidemic either/or/and disability?

- what is the general perspective of people who are obese – do we prefer to refer to it as epidemic, or as disability, or as a matter of lifestyle reactions to psychological and predisposed tendencies?

- we also had recent and even ongoing discussion about medical funding to assist obese patients, and how we who struggle with weight issues are fighting for government assistance to help. How could we best describe our weight issue in order to assist us in reaching funding goals – would it be better to consider it from a medical model or from a lifestyle/social model (disease vs. disability)?

Social workers understand that people are their own experts on themselves. This first means that I am going into this without supporting any particular perspective. It also means that in order to help a group of people, it is imperative to seek the perspective of individuals in that group. I would appreciate hearing from as many of you as possible.

Before posting your comments, please understand that if I either quote or refer to a comment written by you, I will cite according to your username and the blazeonline website.

I'm looking forward to the discussion, and thank everyone for their thoughts.

Janice