Living with a disability : social relational narratives

Abstract

This chapter presents three narratives of the lives of two disabled persons and of a parent and her disabled child in Malta. These narratives are analysed through the social-relational model of disability by exploring how impairment-related needs, interaction with the environment, and interconnection with others play out in the lives of these four persons. Following a discussion of the SRM and the research methodology, brief vignettes of the three narratives are

presented. Further, biographical details are provided in the subsequent analysis, which starts by considering how the three narrators processed life with a

disability. Social-relational model then comes to the fore in the discussion of the intersection between disabling barriers and impairment in the lives of the narrators. The discussion then moves on to the narrators’ projections for the future. In the conclusion, the study’s contribution to a better understanding of the SRMD is discussed.