New voices in Iceland young adults with disabilities in Iceland: The importance of relationships and natural supports

Dóra S Bjarnason

doi:10.1080/15017410209510790

Abstract

<span>This paper deals with young adults’ perspectives and experiences of growing up with a variety of impairments in Iceland, and how they impact the young disabled adults’ approach to the status of adulthood. The paper is based on a qualitative study that explored perspectives and experiences of 36 young disabled adults (16–24 years old), their parents, friends and teachers. The purpose of this paper is to share themes related to the way that choices made by and for disabled children and young persons, place them within different support systems and social network, which subsequent impact the young people's views of themselves and their prospects as young adults. The paper includes different perspectives on adulthood and the extent to which the young disabled people expect to reach that status or remain as “eternal youth” “for a long time”, enmeshed in segregated services. Findings show that the type, nature and mix of generic and segregated special services is critical for the young adults’ approaching adulthood in mainstream society or expecting to remain (for a long time) in the limbo of “eternal youth” within segregated settings. Earlier choices may, however, be revisited at each subsequent transition point. Further, the disabled young adults who struggled for social inclusion, could obtain full active membership in society, even against social and physical barriers and medically defined disability labels.</span>

Highlights

Drawn from a qualitative study of young adults with disability in Iceland, their parents, friends and teachers, this paper deals with young adults' perspectives and experiences of severe disability, the social relationships they develop in childhood and youth, and how these may impact on their approaches to adulthood
My thesis is that decisions about the use of the professional service system and of other support systems, throughout the disabled adults' childhood and youth, will coincide with the social networks they develop and subsequently influence their claims to adulthood. The more they select from the segregated "special service plate" over time, the harder it becomes for the young disabled adults to embrace adulthood in a normative way
Neither disability labels nor a disabling society managed to stifle that dream, which they share with most other young people (Oliver, 1990, Shakespeare et al 1996, see Barnes, Mercer and Shakespeare 1999)

Summary

Introduction

Drawn from a qualitative study of young adults with disability in Iceland, their parents, friends and teachers, this paper deals with young adults' perspectives and experiences of severe disability, the social relationships they develop in childhood and youth, and how these may impact on their approaches to adulthood. In other papers I will look in much more detail at young adults' life worlds and perspectives, and how their approach to adulthood relates to different parental outlooks and careers (Bjarnason, 2002). I explore experiences and perceptions of schooling, daily life and relationships, and how these may relate to future adult roles and dreams of adulthood. I will discuss how social structure, the Icelandic value base, and personal networks and relationships have an impact on the meaning of adulthood and the communication of disability

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