Self-identifying as disabled and developing pride in disability aid overall well-being
Medical Express
28th August 2017
Self-identifying as disabled and developing pride in disability aid overall well-being
Experiencing stigma, the severity of a disability and a person's age and income level help determine whether someone with an impairment considers themselves to be a person with a disability, and experiencing stigma predicts whether those individuals will ultimately develop disability pride, new research from Oregon State University shows.
"Roughly 15 percent of the world's population has some kind of disability but just a fraction of those people actually identify themselves as people with disabilities. Disability identity is a critical step in accepting a disability and helps to reduce the stigma surrounding the label," said Kathleen Bogart, an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University.
Those who self-identify are also more likely to develop pride in their disability, a shift in thinking that can help build resilience and change public attitudes about the "disabled" label, said Bogart, an expert on ableism, or prejudice about disabilities, whose research focuses on the psychosocial implications of disabilities.
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