The function of understanding the formation of a disability identity is to analyze how individual variation plays a role in adapting to their adversity and to develop effective interventions.  

The Function of Understanding Disability Identity Development 

It is possible for someone to be disabled but not identify as disabled. It is also possible for someone to be disabled and identify as such, but not be identified by others as disabled. 

Issues With Personally Defining Disability

The formation of an individual's disability identity relies on both social and psycholgocial factors related to acceptance and meaning/purpose. Thus, the development of this identity is dependant on interpersonal (social) and intrapersonal (psychological) awarness. 

Arizona State University

The differences in norms, lifestyles, and social identities, propagated among disabled individuals. It often forms as a reaction toward past and present attitudes towards disabled communities. It promotes connection, camaraderie, and a shared purpose among those in the community. It also includes a motivation for people with disabilities to address their own civil, social, political, and economic needs

Disability Culture

Forber-Pratt, Lyew, D. A., Mueller, C., & Samples, L. B. (2017). Disability Identity Development: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Rehabilitation Psychology, 62(2), 198–207. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000134


Disability Identity Development: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The degree to which an individual culture, be it national, religious, class, education level, or otherwise, has a positive or negative (inclusive or exclusive) response to disabled individuals within their culture. 

Public Attitude Toward Disability

The language and terminology that those within a certain disability group generally prefer. For example, many Deaf individuals prefer to be called "Deaf" or "hard of hearing" rather than "hearing impaired" or "a person who is deaf"

Disability Language

Captioning is the process of displaying text while a video is being played. Typically, the text will be a transcription of the video's audio, noting who is speaking along with sound effects and important musical cues. This helps to make films, television shows, and other video recordings accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Captioning

Although the sexual behavior of those with disabilities is often stigmatized or ignored by the public, studies have shown that those with disabilities generally still experience the same physical, sexual, and romantic desires that those without disabilities experience.

Disability and Sexuality

Audio Description is the process of narrating certain actions or details that are normally seen visually, such as what a character is wearing. This process is often provided with films, television shows, stage plays, museums to accommodate people with visual impairments. It is often provided via an alternate audio track on a DVD or a handheld audio player.

Audio Description

Working within disability studies and towards more inclusive educational opportunities requires both humility and immense activism. It is important to acknowledge the work is frequently going to be challenged. 

Public Attitude within the work of Disability 

Defining Disability Identity Development

Since most children with disabilities live into adulthood, a growing amount of research has been dedicated to analyzing the life course outcomes for these individuals. Studies show that while there are often more negative mental and physical health outcomes for individuals with disabilities, more and more people are experiencing similar life trajectories to their peers. This is due to similar opportunities with fulfilling age appropriate adult social roles and positive life experiences. 

Pathways Toward Positive Psychosocial Outcomes and Mental Health for Youth with Disabilities

Disability advocacy is defined as acting or speaking in ways that align with and protect the rights of people with disabilities. There are many different forms of advocacy and it can occur at multiple different levels. 

Defining Disability Advocacy 



People with disabilities can find it more difficult to eat healthy and be physically active. This might be due to: 
- A lack of healthy food choices.
- Difficulty with chewing or swallowing food, or its taste or texture.
- Medications that can contribute to weight gain, weight loss, and changes in appetite.
- Physical limitations that can reduce a person’s ability to exercise.
- Pain.
- A lack of energy.
- A lack of accessible environments (for example, sidewalks, parks, and exercise equipment) that can enable exercise.
- A lack of resources (for example, money, transportation, and social support from family, friends, neighbors, and community members).

Disability and Obesity

A major critique of the current disability studies discipline relates to its essentialist and binary approach to understanding disability and the subjective disability experience. 

Disability Studies and Intersectionality


A field created from the merger of Disability studies, Black studies, postcolonial studies, and feminist studies  that focuses on the lives of Black disabled people and the relationship between race and disability as systems of privilege and oppression. In particular, there is a focus on how disability has appeared among Black people, how disability has been treated and understood within Black communities, how blackness and disability have been discursively linked in various cultures, and how disability an be understood as an identity experience and political category that has been conceptualized, and approached differently by Black activists and intellectuals than it has been by white activists and how this difference proposes and alternative framework of viewing disability. 

Black Disability Studies

Disability Justice is a framework that was developed in the mid-2000s by disabled people of color, disabled queer people, and disabled queer people of color, including Patty Berne, Leroy Moore, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Mia Mingus and groups including Sins Invalid, the Disability Justice Collective, and Azola Story.

Disability Justice 

A subsection of disability studies theory, whose name was inspired by queer theory, that emphasizes creating a theoretical approach to disability that looks at how disability functions as an ideology, a paradigm, an epistemology, and a system of oppression in addition to an identity experience.

Crip Theory 

Engagement with disability as a social and political category and embodiment rather than as a solely personal or medical experience.

Disability Politics

- The disabled population has a large percentage of children, with one third being children. 
  - Many of these disabilities are preventable, but lack of access to healthcare makes treatment difficult, resulting in 65 percent of disabilities affecting children being preventable. 
  - Even more alarming is the research that 98 percent of children with disabilities in low-income countries (LICs) do not attend school.
- Ten percent of the world's population has a sensory, physical, or intellectual disability. 
- Once taking family members into account, about 25 percent of people in the world are impacted by disabilities.
- Two thirds of all people with disabilities live in LICs. Global disability is rapidly increasing, mainly due to population growth in less developed countries, and this further shows the alarming disparity of disabled populations across the world. 

Statistics of Disabilities Across the World

In 2009, ⅔+ of homeless adults had some disability or mental, substance abuse disorder. However, many adults who are diaabled and homeless qualify for SSI and or SSDI support, which would provide benefits that would help secure housing and get recipients necessary treatment. Though, despite being eligible, many people are homeless do not apply for SSI and SSDI Programs. There has been limited research on initiatives aimed at increasing access and benefits for people with disabilities who are homeless.

Disability and Homelessness

NLTS and NLTS-2 shows a matriculation of students with learning disabilities into postsecondary education rose from 11.4% in 1990 to 34.5% in 2005. These students’ success have been notably limited given a 70% dropout rate, lower GPAs, and enrollment in easier programs compared to their non-disabled counterparts.

Learning Disability and Postsecondary Education

-  the community is very supportive of members that are blind and deaf. 
- There is resources available to support deaf and blind individuals. 
- American sign language (ASL) or augmentative and alternative communication devices (AAC)- communication. 
- Diversity in the deaf community 
- Hearing aids or cochlear implants for hearing 
- sensory deprivation- natural reduction of natural stimuli involving lights or five senses. 
-Deaf and blind students can access deaf school systems and higher levels of education. 

American Deaf and Blind Culture

The relationship between sex and disability has been a subject of study for over two decades. Yet, there remains no clear consensus on how sex influences disability and through which mechanisms this influence occurs. Despite the well-documented higher prevalence of self-reported disability among women compared to men, the effect of sex on disability varies significantly depending on the measures used and the covariates considered. 

The Role of Sex on Disability

When discussing disability, the focus is usually on basic accommodations such as interpreting, captions, or ramps. However, accommodations alone cannot guarantee real access for individuals with disabilities. That's why educators and professionals in schools and related fields must educate students about disabilities, end negative stereotypes, and ensure accessibility for disabled individuals. The goal is to recognize disability as a part of diversity and culture rather than a medical condition based on diagnosis.

Disability Culture at Schools

This research presents real-life knowledge about the connections between disability, sexuality, and gender equality issues in different Asian countries. It looks at the experiences of women and LGBTIQ people with disabilities, and their rights and empowerment. The research aims to help local disabled persons’ organizations and NGOs use human rights laws and work together with academics and human rights advocates. 

Asian Disability Studies

Cerebral palsy is a condition that affects movement and muscle control. It occurs when the brain is damaged before birth, during birth, or in early childhood. This damage makes it difficult for the body to move smoothly and in coordination. Some people with cerebral palsy have trouble walking, while others need help with daily tasks like eating or talking. The condition does not get worse over time, but affects everyone differently. There is no cure, but therapy, treatments, and assistive devices can help people with cerebral palsy live full and independent lives.

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