The “Quebec classification” known as
“Process of production of handicap” can it contribute
to the production of knowledge and help decision-making?

A study run by the “Quebec Committee on the International Classification of Impairment Disabilities and handicaps” at the same time as the revision process of the I.C.I.D.H. led to the production of a “classification” distinct from that of the WHO. The third version of this “classification”, known as “Processus de production du handicap” released in 1998 – considered by its developers as a final, accomplished and validated version – seems to place itself more as a competitor than as a complement to the WHO classification. Although called “Classification”, this text is in fact made up of five distinct documents entitled “nomenclature” none of which have the formal properties of a classification. The expression “Processus de production du handicap” does not refer to a delimited set of objects or types susceptible to be classified, but is the proper noun of a “model” which claims to be “an explicative model of the diseases, traumatisms and other attacks of the integrity and development of the individual”. The analysis of the different nomenclatures shows that they have not been designed to serve the general purpose of “explanation” of the “Processus de production du handicap” in other words the “process of production of social exclusion”, and they cannot claim to contribute in a notable way to this explanation. On the contrary, the main purpose according to which these documents have been conceived seems to be to provide “experts” the means to draw up “individual profiles” based on judgments passed on individuals, on the nature and extent of their “needs”, their belonging to a “target group”, and their right to compensation.