Disability and a sense of community belonging A study among tetraplegic spinal-cord-injured persons in France

This article presents a study of the identity of persons with motor impairments with regard to the community of disabled persons. The authors used the Tetrafigap survey on the long-term outcome of Tetraplegic Spinal-cord-injured (TSCI) persons, in France, to study the sense of belonging to the community of disabled persons among 1356 TSCI persons in relation to factors of social participation (both sociological and disability-related) and subjective factors (subjective well-being, social perception of disability, perceived disability). The results show that 44% of TSCI persons felt that disabled persons do not constitute a community (the “no-community” group). Of those who recognised the existence of such a community, 34% said they belonged to it (the “in-community” group) and 22% declared they did not (the “out-community” group). People in the “no-community” group tended to be more socially integrated, whilst those in the “in-community” group tended to have greater social and clinical difficulties. The “out-community” group was more diverse, being made up of both autonomous persons and dependent persons suffering from complications. Factors related to the sense of community belonging were identified using bivariate analysis and multiple logistic regression. Subjective well-being appeared to be independent of any sense of community belonging. However, the authors found a gender difference: women in the “in-community” group described themselves as having a poorer level of well-being than women in the other two groups. The results are discussed in terms of two views on the social treatment of disabilities: universalism and assimilation vs. particularism and positive identity and the growth of the disability movement.