Abstract
BackgroundAdjustment to the onset of disability has complex reverberations relating to both socially engendered disadvantage and the realities of functional limitation. Pre-existing ways of understanding disability can meaningfully shape this experience.ObjectiveThis study aimed to provide an exploratory understanding of the experience of becoming disabled in a low-income, under-served, rural South African community. In particular, it was interested in how people with disabilities constructed their struggle within the conceptual split between disadvantage caused by ‘malfunctioning’ bodies (a ‘medical model’ view) and that caused by social organisation (a ‘social model’ view).MethodsSeven people between the ages of 39 and 47 who had acquired a physical disability within the last 4 years were recruited in a rural area of Limpopo province, South Africa. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted, and the resulting data were thematically analysed. The authors were positioned as both ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ to the participants and sought to use this orientation to best understand and stay faithful to participants’ views while simultaneously applying participant’s experiences to conceptual knowledge in disability studies.ResultsFour themes emerged: (1) emotional impact of onset of disability, (2) being introduced to disablist prejudice, (3) being required to take on a ‘disabled’ identity and (4) socio-economic implications of becoming disabled. The findings reflected a complex set of adverse experiences in the lives of the participants, spanning disadvantages based on embodied, cultural, relational and environmental factors, which were superimposed on existing, generalised poverty in their local communities. Participants made sense of their predicament in multiple, evolving ways.ConclusionThis study contributes to the understanding of the complex predicaments, and sense-making, of persons who have acquired a disability in a rural, impoverished Global South environment.
Highlights
Almost everyone will experience a form of impairment or disability in their lifetime (World Health Organization [WHO] 2011)
The present study further develops the theme of the relationship between bodily ‘limitations’ and exclusion in this same study sample. It uses this theme as a bridge to understand the larger conceptual question about how people with disabilities construct their struggle in relation to the binary conceptual split between disadvantage caused by ‘malfunctioning’ bodies (a ‘medical model’ view) and that caused by social organisation (a ‘social model’ view). We investigate how these two views intertwine in the accounts provided by community members with disabilities, taking cognisance of the influence of resource constraints characteristic of many rural communities in the Global South
If we consider the experiences and sense-making of the participants in this study in terms of the three disability paradigms described earlier – that is, the medical model, social model and feminist views – we find that the data reflect an interweaving of all three perspectives
Summary
Almost everyone will experience a form of impairment or disability (either temporary or permanent) in their lifetime (World Health Organization [WHO] 2011). More than 1 billion people in the world live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning (WHO 2011). People with disabilities are estimated to be 15% of the general population, but possibly higher for those living in poverty (WHO 2011). In the last South African national census, the prevalence of disability was estimated to be 7.5% (Statistics South Africa 2016); this may reflect under-reporting because of stigma or limitations of measurement tools (Maart, Amosun & Jelsma 2019). Adjustment to the onset of disability has complex reverberations relating to both socially engendered disadvantage and the realities of functional limitation. Pre-existing ways of understanding disability can meaningfully shape this experience
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