“I Wish People Would Understand”: Exploring Ableism Through Young Adults’ Experiences of Living With Chronic Illness

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative research project is to highlight the diversity of lived experiences of young adults living with chronic illnesses and to interpret the meaning attributed to these experiences. More specifically, the objectives of this study are: 1) to describe how young adults with chronic illness perceive their relationships and their social environment; 2) to identify and describe the specific challenges and oppression experienced by young adults with chronic illness; 3) to identify the strategies developed by young adults to cope with social expectations; 4) to explore how young adults with chronic illness perceive some of their experiences as positive; and 5) to propose implications for social work practice and suggest appropriate intervention methods. Data was collected by interviewing seven young adults with chronic conditions in the Ottawa region and the results were analyzed through the combined lenses of a social constructionist view disability and the phenomenology of impairment. The results of this study show that central to the experiences described by participants is discrimination resulting from ableist expectations. More specifically, the key findings demonstrate that because of dominant ableist and healthist ideologies, young adults with chronic illness experience internalized ableism. Anti-oppressive social work is proposed to challenge discrimination and address some of young adults’ needs as well as to make changes on a more structural level through collective action, advocacy, policy change and activism.

Keywords : young adults, chronic illness, disability, ableism, discrimination, social construction of disability, phenomenology of impairment, anti-oppressive social work