GDA believes in the social model of disability and believes that disabled people are disabled by barriers in society which has not planned for their inclusion. Disability is not about impairments or medical conditions - it is a complex social problem which requires joined up working across a range of agencies and the whole of society to remove barriers. In this way, disability shifts from being a private trouble and is identified as a public, social issue - a problem that has to do with the way society is organised rather than with individual deficit.