“Am i disabled?”: disability and identity management among middle-class persons with disability in Ghana

Abstract

Persons with disability experience actual manifestations of stigma (enacted stigma) and imagined or anticipated responses of people to their impairments (felt stigma). These experiences influence their conceptions of their impairments and their behaviour as well. This study examined how 16 middle—class persons with disability in Ghana frame their impairments and how they manage their identities in response to stigma. Data for the study was obtained from in-depth interviews of participants who had been selected purposively. The author used the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework to analyse data. Findings from the study were organised into two themes. These are how the participants frame their impairments and how the participants managed their identities as they confronted disability stigma. The participants engaged in self—denial of disability because they did not regard their impairments as “disabling”. They also employed two related strategies to manage their identities. First, they made use of behavioural strategies to alter the nature and sources of stigma, and second, they devised cognitive strategies to construct positive identities to challenge disability stereotypes. It is important that persons with disability are given the opportunity to obtain adequate formal education in order for them to increase their levels of awareness. This will enable them to improve their cultural and social capitals and also facilitate their entry into mainstream activities in society. furthermore, inclusive spaces have to be expanded so that persons with disability will not have to rearrange themselves and their thoughts for social integration.