“I Just Want to Live My Life”: Young Disabled People’s Possibilities for Achieving Participation and Wellness

Abstract

This study aimed to (a) explore disabled children’s and adolescents’ possibilities for participation and (b) identify the practices and policies that affect their participation and how these are enacted. Case studies were conducted with seven children and adolescents with various impairments. Each case included interviews with the young person, their parents and teachers, as well as observations in their usual environments. The interview topics covered the young people’s participation, their sense of belonging and aspects that were pivotal to their engagement and wellness. The observations focused on their possibilities for participation and interactions with peers and adults. These young disabled people’s possibilities for participation at home, in school and in their neighbourhoods were affected by complex dynamics between personal and environmental factors. Whether and how the young people’s disability-related rights were enacted depended on the socio-cultural–material arrangements and parents’ knowledge of the welfare system. To better understand and act on the complex and marginalised position of young disabled people, more focus should be directed at policies that affect their rights and possibilities for participation and how these are enacted in practice. Knowledge needs to be expanded to scrutinise the disabling hindrances hidden in social and structural spaces and implemented in services.