TY - JOUR
T1 - Framing disability among young adults with disabilities and non-disabled young adults
T2 - An exploratory study
AU - Soffer, Michal
AU - Chew, Fiona
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors declared no conflict of interest with respect to the authorship and publication of this article. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research in this article: funding from the Endowed Lerner Chair, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, NY, USA.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Informa UK Ltd.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - To explore how young adults frame disability and to compare the meanings of disability between persons with and without disabilities. Method: Snow ball sampling was used to recruit the participants. The sample comprised of 14 young adults from Upstate New York area; nine were non-disabled, five had a physical disability. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Five themes emerged from the analysis: disability as a deviation from "the norm", disability as inability, disability as something one needs to overcome, the role of the environment in disability, and disability as a negative phenomenon. The findings suggest that persons with disabilities hold somewhat different meanings of disability compared with non-disabled persons. Conclusions: While the biomedical frame of disability was somewhat challenged, disability is mainly understood via a biomedical lens. Disability should be framed as form of human diversity, not as a mark of Cain.Implications for RehabilitationThe ways through which disability is framed-as a medical issue or a social one-influences social attitudes and behaviors toward persons with disabilities as well as the shaping of disability policies and services. These, in turn, effect the well-being and impact the lives of persons with disabilities.In a relatively small sample which comprised of young adults with disabilities and non-disabled young adults, this study shows that while medical definitions of disability are somewhat contested, the medical definition of disability seems to prevail.
AB - To explore how young adults frame disability and to compare the meanings of disability between persons with and without disabilities. Method: Snow ball sampling was used to recruit the participants. The sample comprised of 14 young adults from Upstate New York area; nine were non-disabled, five had a physical disability. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Five themes emerged from the analysis: disability as a deviation from "the norm", disability as inability, disability as something one needs to overcome, the role of the environment in disability, and disability as a negative phenomenon. The findings suggest that persons with disabilities hold somewhat different meanings of disability compared with non-disabled persons. Conclusions: While the biomedical frame of disability was somewhat challenged, disability is mainly understood via a biomedical lens. Disability should be framed as form of human diversity, not as a mark of Cain.Implications for RehabilitationThe ways through which disability is framed-as a medical issue or a social one-influences social attitudes and behaviors toward persons with disabilities as well as the shaping of disability policies and services. These, in turn, effect the well-being and impact the lives of persons with disabilities.In a relatively small sample which comprised of young adults with disabilities and non-disabled young adults, this study shows that while medical definitions of disability are somewhat contested, the medical definition of disability seems to prevail.
KW - Biomedical model of disability
KW - Social model of disability
KW - Young adults
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U2 - 10.3109/09638288.2014.913701
DO - 10.3109/09638288.2014.913701
M3 - Article
C2 - 24766151
AN - SCOPUS:84920990446
SN - 0963-8288
VL - 37
SP - 171
EP - 178
JO - Disability and Rehabilitation
JF - Disability and Rehabilitation
IS - 2
ER -