Communication Studies, Department of
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
Summer 1991
Citation
Western Journal of Speech Communication 55:3 (Summer 1991), pp. 254–274.
doi: 10.1080/10570319109374384
Abstract
Persons with physical disabilities were studied to determine how they communicate when they perceive able-bodied persons are expecting or demanding disclosure about their disability in new relationships. An interpretive analysis was performed on 350 pages of transcripted data from interviews with disabled adults. The results showed that disabled persons were able to describe the communication of able-bodied others and their attributions when disclosure was demanded or expected. This study revealed communication strategies disabled persons use to manage disclosure. These strategies were discussed as regulating privacy boundaries, whereby disabled persons seek to be acknowledged as “persons first” by controlling dissemination of private information.
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Other Communication Commons
Comments
Copyright © 1991 Western States Communication Association; published by Taylor and Francis. Used by permission.