Loughborough University
Browse
PUB LDS 916 Changing what it means to be normal.pdf (67.11 kB)

Changing what it means to be "normal": a grounded theory study of the mobility choices of people who are blind or visually impaired

Download (67.11 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2015-03-12, 14:21 authored by Elizabeth Ball, Colette Nicolle
Introduction: The ability to get out and about is important to social inclusion and quality of life and it is one of the most significant challenges for people who are blind or visually impaired. There has been little research into the underlying concerns of people who are blind or visually impaired when making decisions about mobility. Method: This grounded theory study explored the main mobility-related concerns of people who are blind or visually impaired. It uses qualitative data, drawn from a combination of online discussions, face-to-face, telephone and email interviews, and focus groups with people who are blind or visually impaired and rehabilitation practitioners. Results: The primary concern of people who are blind or visually impaired when making choices about where to go, and when and how to do so, was a desire to see oneself and to be seen by others as “normal”. Self-identity and perceived “normality” are subjective and changeable and are continually internally co-reconstructed to achieve congruence between them. The mobility strategies used are those that are perceived as most “normal”. Discussion: Perceived “normality” has a powerful influence on behaviour. By harnessing this, rehabilitation services may be better able to promote autonomy and self-reliance. Implications for Practitioners: To promote independence, rehabilitation services must change people’s perception of what is “normal”. People must be supported to come to perceive fulfilment of valued social roles, autonomy and self-reliance as “normal”.

History

School

  • Design

Published in

Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness

Pages

1 - 21 (21)

Citation

BALL, E.M. and NICOLLE, C.A., 2015. Changing what it means to be "normal": a grounded theory study of the mobility choices of people who are blind or visually impaired. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 109 (4), article 4.

Publisher

© American Foundation for the Blind

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

File created (12/03/2015). This is not the final version of record. The following article was published in the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 109 (4), article 4. The final version of record can be found at http://www.jvib.org.

ISSN

0145-482X

eISSN

1559-1476

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC