Participation as a citizen, that is, engaging in social, political, and governmental life, has been rarely seen as an important domain when studying social participation of disabled persons. The purpose of this study was to depict the participation in community and political life of persons with severe or multiple disabilities and to determine which individual and social factors were associated with their participation. Altogether, 818 persons, who had participated in rehabilitation for persons with severe disabilities, answered the questionnaire survey. They reported how actively they participated in associations, local congregations, political parties, or public elections. Active participation in community and political life was strongly connected to participation in work, social, and leisure activities, as well as to the use of computers. According to stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis, the strongest predictors for active participation in community and political life were age of disablement, the individual's present age, self-rated income, self-rated quality of life, use of assistive devices, and the ability to communicate.

The Social Insurance Institution (SII) of Finland arranges medical rehabilitation for people with severe disabilities. The rehabilitation process requires collaboration between the client and several organizations and professionals. The study aimed to find out what kind of experiences persons with disabilities had on their possibilities of participation in the planning and process of rehabilitation, and what factors were associated with the degree of their participation in the rehabilitation process. The study group was chosen using stratified sampling from among rehabilitation clients. The data were gathered using a questionnaire survey. Over half of the clients reported having participated actively in the rehabilitation planning and most found that their opinions had been taken into account at least fairly well during the planning phase. The results indicate that special attention should be paid to developing client-driven approaches in the rehabilitation system and to supporting the participation of clients who have difficulties in expressing their needs because of their illness, disability, or educational and social backgrounds.

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