Due to high visibility and low public awareness, people with facial differences (FD) frequently face decisions about whether to explain or disclose their FD. Although disclosure of concealable stigma has been frequently researched, little work has examined disclosure from the perspectives of people with FD, whose stigma is often not concealable. Thematic analysis was used to explore semistructured interviews of adults (n = 16) with diverse FDs. Disclosure approaches varied dependent on the discloser, the disclosee, and the context. Two themes illustrated participants’ approaches to (non)disclosure: agentic and autonomous. Agentic described when participants felt they had no choice in explaining or not explaining their condition, which fell into subthemes of forced disclosure, forced nondisclosure, and unauthorized disclosure. Those who used autonomous approaches made the deliberate decision to disclose or not disclose their FD to others. Autonomous subthemes included social avoidance, concealment, false disclosure, selective disclosure, indiscriminate disclosure, and broadcasting. Three experiential themes—misunderstanding, connection, and empowerment—characterized antecedents, experiences with, and consequences of (non)disclosure. Agentic (non)disclosure and autonomous (non)disclosure were frequently associated with the misunderstanding theme, while autonomous disclosure involved themes of connection and empowerment and was thus experienced as more beneficial. Participants’ advice was to allow people with FD disclosure autonomy. Improved social representation of people with FDs, public awareness, and stigma reduction will help remove the onus of disclosure from individuals with FD.

In a two-study project, researchers used qualitative methods and inductive thematic analyses to investigate the lived awareness- and advocacy-related experiences of 27 adults with over 35 different rare diseases, disorders, or disabilities (RDs). In Study 1, participants in two focus groups described how a lack of RD awareness led to experiences with several types of stigma, complicated their expressions and disclosures of disability, and spurred them to work towards awareness. Participant priorities identified in Study 1 motivated researchers to design and conduct Study 2. In Study 2, researchers interviewed 18 RD self-advocates about their lived experiences with and ideas regarding advocacy. Their recommendations included increasing social and systemic support, education, and media and professional representation. Advocates in Study 2 also warned of potential roadblocks to self-advocacy and change, including systemic invalidation and bias, lack of access to activist spaces, and limited time and energy for advocacy. Overall, analyses exposed the complex and interwoven influences of RD awareness and advocacy.

Undergraduate students evaluated scenarios depicting violence in a long-term dating relationship—in either video or written form, and involving either a male or female aggressor in either a same- or other-gender relationship. Other than the genders of the victims and assailants, the details of the scenarios were identical. Results showed that participants rated written scenarios as more powerful than video scenarios and believed that sexual assault was more likely to have happened in the written than in the video scenarios. Compared to men, women were more emotionally impacted by the scenarios, thought sexual assault was more likely to have happened, were more likely to think the aggressor wanted to have sex with the victim, and were less likely to think the victim wanted to have sex with the aggressor. Participants who rated other-sex scenarios thought sexual assault was more likely to have occurred, that the aggressor more likely wanted to have sex with the victim, and that the victim less likely wanted to have sex with the aggressor than those rating same-sex scenarios. When women were portrayed as the victims, regardless of relationship type, the scenario was more emotionally evocative. On average, participants strongly agreed that sexual assault had occurred in each of the scenarios.