What's wrong with 'seeing the person first'?

Person-first thinking makes it a virtue to 'see the person, not the disability', overlooking, or making an effort to overlook, a person's impairment in order to see 'the person within'. This might seem a caring and compassionate approach in everyday nursing practice, but on closer examination it can be seen as unhelpful and even discriminatory. This article considers why this should be the case and introduces the affirmation model as a basis for a different way of thinking about the issue.