Stigma Resistance by Adult Self-Advocates With Intellectual Disabilities.
Nikos Sarras, Lisa Richardson, Eve Bolland and 1 others
Self-advocates with intellectual disabilities described resisting stigma through concrete actions: confronting mistreatment, proving doubters wrong, and speaking publicly.
They identified inaccessibility and lack of support as the biggest barriers, and peer support and Easy-read information as the biggest helps.
Key findings
1Participants resisted stigma through behavioural actions rather than internal cognitive strategies: confronting or reporting mistreatment (14 of 16), stating their needs and rights (8), proving people wrong (6), public speaking (10), educating others (11), supporting peers (12), and working with others to effect change (13).
2The most frequently cited barriers were internal struggles such as shyness, embarrassment, and not believing in oneself (13 of 16), not knowing how or what to say (11), negative attitudes and actions from others (12), absence of support (10), and inaccessibility including lack of Easy-read materials (9).
3The strongest facilitators were support from others (16 of 16), self-confidence built through self-advocacy group involvement (13), learning from past experience (13), acting in line with personal values (13), and accessibility to information and resources (11).
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
14 of 16 participants held paid (part-time) self-advocacy roles and 13 of 16 were White British, so the sample does not represent the wider population of people with intellectual disabilities in the UK, where only a small minority are in any form of paid work. All participants were active self-advocates, a selected subgroup likely to be more experienced and confident in resisting stigma than the general population of people with intellectual disabilities. The nine picture prompts used during interviews may have steered participants toward describing self-advocacy activities or activities that made them feel good, rather than the full range of stigma-resistance strategies they use. Participants may have omitted ways of resisting stigma that they did not recognise as such or that did not fit the picture prompts.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme at University College London.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these findings as describing how all people with intellectual disabilities resist stigma. Every participant was an active member of a self-advocacy group, most held paid advocacy roles, and the group was predominantly White British. The experiences described are those of a motivated, supported, and relatively privileged subset, not of the wider population.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →