Search results for ‘Subject term:"physical disabilities"’ Sort:
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Disabled women in Northern Ireland: situation, experiences and identity
- Author:
- EQUALITY COMMISSION FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
- Publisher:
- Equality Commission for Northern Ireland
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 34p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Belfast
The primary aim of the research was to sketch a profile of the multiple identity group, disabled women; in simple terms, to answer the question 'How do people in this group define themselves?’ The focus is to consider how people understand and perceive their identity.
The process of being disabled
- Author:
- CHINNERY B.
- Journal article citation:
- Practice: Social Work in Action, 4(1), 1990, pp.43-48.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The view that people with a disability are the passive "helped" disempowers them and creates difficulties in their interactions with the able-bodied.
Living on a knife edge: the responses of people with physical health conditions to changes in disability benefits
- Authors:
- SAFFER Jessica, NOLTE Lizette, DUFFY Simon
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 33(10), 2018, pp.1555-1578.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This article documents the experiences of people with a physical health condition or disability who have experienced a loss of or change in disability benefits under the welfare reform programme in the United Kingdom. A theoretical model was constructed using in-depth interviews and grounded theory methods. The findings show that participants experienced the benefits system as dehumanising, and felt that they lived in a judgemental and invalidating society, where they were perceived as ‘scroungers’ and faced discrimination from others. These experiences negatively affected their mental and physical health and well-being. They also negatively affected participants’ identity, leading to experiences of shame, hopelessness and social isolation. However, many participants attempted to resist these negative impacts (e.g. through seeking support or taking political action). The findings demonstrate the significant impact of benefit changes on well-being and identity, thus highlighting important implications for claimants, and staff in healthcare, the benefits system and government. (Publisher abstract)
Disabled people's attitudes toward other impairment groups: a hierarchy of impairments
- Author:
- DEAL Mark
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 18(7), December 2003, pp.897-910.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This article seeks to explore, through the literature, the notion that a hierarchy of impairment exists from the perspectives of both disabled and non-disabled people. The literature suggests that disabled people, like non-disabled people, do not always wish to be associated with other impairment groups for a variety of complex reasons, including competing for scarce allocations of funding/resources, sexual attraction, stigma, etc. The article concludes that further research is required in relation to disabled people's attitudes toward other disabled people, in general, and other impairment groups. Such research would expand our knowledge with respect to the degree to which disabled people view themselves as a homogenous in-group, as a set of separate impairment groups, or viewing impairment as only one facet of identity. These findings would help the disability movement to achieve greater inclusiveness amongst different impairments.
Pictures and silences: memories of sexual abuse of disabled people
- Author:
- ZAVIRSEK Darja
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 11(4), October 2002, pp.270-285.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article shows that both the sexual and asexual identity of impaired persons are invariably fashioned within the institutional arrangement of domination and subjugation. It shows that if disabled persons are seen as asexual or if they are sexualised, they cannot escape sexual violence, which is not an aberration, but is intrinsic to the social construction of disability. It claims that ignoring the memories of sexual abuse is part of a subtle and unintentional discrimination, which reflects a continuity of prejudices and hatred toward disabled children and adults in the private realm as well as in public care. People from ethnic minorities, such as Roma, are still today more often diagnosed as mentally disabled, which shows that the disability diagnosis has to be seen as part of cultural responses towards an economically and socially marginalised group.
'Orange in a world of apples': the voices of albinism
- Author:
- WAN Nathalie
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 18(3), May 2003, pp.277-296.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Albinism is a rare genetic condition that affects the pigmentation of the retina, hair and skin. Consequently, people with albinism world-wide experience the stigma and negative repercussions of an unconventional physical appearance, as well as a visual impairment. The medical literature has focused extensively on the genetics of albinism amongst animals, but it has been relatively under-studied and ignored in sociology. People with albinism have rarely had the opportunity to tell their stories; to tell their sorrows and their triumphs. This paper attempts to remedy this failure in social science. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven women and five men, living in various countries globally. The study is framed around the role theory of stigma and 'spoiled identity', as well as the more recent Disability Studies that stresses 'the normals' as being the 'identity spoilers' or the 'problem'. The participants revealed victimisation from various sources including students, teachers, employers, colleagues, strangers and the medical profession. Focus is placed on the strategies that respondents have devised in coping with these adversities. The results identify principal methods of reaction and response to the discrimination against people with albinism. These eight different strategies of resistance to the stigmatisation of albinism are essential elements of personal change and even, possibly, social change. This paper quotes respondents' own words. Such methodology offers the chance for people with albinism to voice their experiences, and for us researchers to listen and learn.