This article presents the conceptual origins and the usefulness of an holistic model, stressing the role of environmental determinants in the performance of day-to-day activities and the fulfilment of social roles by persons with disabilities. The Quebec Committee on ICIDH contribution to the development of knowledge on the clarification of the relationship of disabled individual-environment and the understanding of the handicap creation process in relation with ICIDH experimentations is presented. Finally, on the basis of anthropological social research conducted in Quebec, the article illustrates a methodology for environmental analysis of the handicap situations of disabled clients in rehabilitation and social integration support programmes.