A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

Jennie, a woman in her mid-thirties living in Glasgow. Jennie has a number of physical
impairments and is a member of the LGBT community.
Kevin, a man in his early-fifties living near Fraserbugh in Aberdeenshire. Kevin has damage
to his brain caused by an aneurysm as well as respiratory impairments and a leg damaged in
a motorcycle accident in his twenties.
Lola, a woman in her late-forties from London. Lola has arthritis and is a wheelchair-user.
Mary, a woman in her early-fifties living in Edinburgh. Mary has a visual impairment.
Rose, a woman in her early-fifties living in the highlands. Rose has limb-girdle muscular
dystrophy and is a wheelchair-user.
Roshni, a woman in her mid-twenties living in Glasgow. Roshni is blind and is a white revert
Muslim.
Sarah, a woman in her early-twenties from Edinburgh. Sarah has cerebral palsy and is a
wheelchair-user.
Surinder, a woman in her late-thirties living in Glasgow. Surinder has multiple sclerosis and
is a wheelchair-user.
While I have described people‟s impairments this is not to satisfy a medically-oriented
fascination with „what is wrong‟ with people, but to illustrate the diverse nature of
impairments of the people who participated in my research. While much work in Disability
Studies has downplayed the significance of impairment, focusing instead on structural
barriers, the affirmative approach I am developing identifies impairment as difference to be
expected and respected, not as a characteristic of life to be hidden or considered a source of
stigma. While impairments may be diverse, experiences of disabling oppression are
patterned along familiar lines.
In the list above I have described some people as being „from‟ a place and others as „living
in‟ a place. Those described as „from‟ are still living more or less in the area they grew up in,
while those described as „living in‟ have moved in recent years. An interesting aspect of
having interviewed disabled people across such a wide geographical area is the frequency of
parallels in accounts of experiences. While disability is typically represented and
experienced as an individual problem, a wider picture can reveal the structural nature of
disabling social relations.
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