Your Experience Is Not My Experience

Abstract

Central to the field of disability studies is the concept of disability culture, because it provides a sense of cohesion for persons with disabilities and helps to explain their identity, place in the world, and management strategies. Discussions of disability culture generally focus on shared experiences, values, and relationships to the environment. An implicit assumption in many analyses is that disability cul. ture is common to all people with disabilities and is experienced in a similar way. The authors of this paper analyzed the contextualized life stories of four African Americans with disabilities in Chicago in order to explore their disability experiences, their ideas about disability and disability culture, and the relevance of and possible participation in the disability community. None of these individuals embraced the idea of disability culture, nor did they participate in the disability community. Instead, they responded to their own inner city context and culture, which is defined by poverty, racism, danger, drug use, unemployment, and poor medical services. Their "culture of persecution," which is widely spread and expressed in different ways, deals with concerns other than disability, such as day-to-day survival. For inner-city African Americans, the concept of disability has some similarities to—but is essentially different in meaning, consequences, and life expression from—that of other groups of people with disabilities, such as those from different racelethnic backgrounds or social status. The implications of these findings for future research, service interventions, and social policy are also explored.