Disability, stigma and deviance.

Abstract

An important contribution social science research makes to understanding the experiences of disabled individuals in the U.S. is to illuminate the influence of stigma and deviance on those experiences. Because perceptions of negative difference (deviance) and their evocation of adverse responses (stigma) have been and continue to be widespread, it is these with which alternate perceptions and responses vie in the construction of disability's symbolic and practical meanings. While some research demonstrates a regrettable imposition of stigma/deviance into the lives and minds of disabled people, some of it shows disabled people resisting stigma/deviance imputations; and some of it suggests that such imputations are losing force as new ways of thinking about the meaning of disability gain sway.