The way that we perceive individuals with disabilities has come a long way, according to Mertens (2003). In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843), Tiny Tim is understood to be ill. His disability is a medical challenge and the family longs for the funds that they can use to engage doctors or surgeons to help “cure” him.

Today, researchers use a disability interpretive lens to view disabilities as a dimensional difference, not a defect (Cresswell, 2012). Siebers (2008) claims that disability studies can change our basic assumptions about identity, ideology, language, politics, social oppression, and the body.

Ideas about the capacity, limitations, experiences or needs of disabled people are socially constructed and will continue to change. As researchers, we are ethically bound not to exclude people with disabilities;  insight into their lives benefits us all. Disability studies don’t directly impact my study on volunteers, but it’s clear that this type of exploration and understanding strengthens a society that values human rights.

References

Cresswell, J. W. (2012). Qualitative inquiry & research design (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Dickens, C. (1843). A Christmas carol. Retrieved from http://www.stormfax.com/1dickens.htm

Mertens (2003). Mixed methods and the politics of human research: The transformative-emancipatory perspective. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in behavioral social research (133-164) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Siebers, T. (2008). Disability theory. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.