Disability, Social Class and Stigma: An Intersectional Analysis of Disabled Young People’s School Experiences

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a renewed interest in stigma and its effects on life-course trajectories of disabled people. However, sociological narratives largely adopt monolithic understandings of disability, neglecting contextual meanings of different impairments and conditions and their intersections with other ascriptive inequalities, which may be consequential for exposure to stigma. Our article provides an intersectional analysis of disabled young people’s lived experiences of stigma in mainstream school settings. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 35 autistic, dyslexic and/or physically disabled students, we show that stigmatisation is contingent on social class background, which affects students’ location within the school. We also find substantial variation in experiences of stigma between and within sub-categories of conditions/impairments, as a consequence of the perceived distance from normative ideals of skills and behaviour attached to individuals in school settings. Our findings highlight the importance of intersectional analyses of stigma, challenging universalised views about stigmatised disabled people.

Failing children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in England: New evidence of poor outcomes and a postcode lottery at the Local Authority level at Key Stage 1

“…For instance, the estimated coefficients imply that a one percentage point increase in the number of children eligible for FSM is associated with a decline in the proportion of children with SEND meeting the standard, ranging between 0.14 points in writing and 0.49 points in science. These findings give further evidence of the intersectionality of SEND with other characteristics at the LA level (e.g., Chatzitheochari and Butler-Rees, 2022;Keslair & McNally, 2009;Youdell, 2010). Note, however, that these and the other estimated coefficients cannot be given a causal interpretation as the regression design is purely descriptive, consistent with our aim of accounting for spatial inequalities in SEND outcomes.…”

“…A relatively high proportion of young people diagnosed with SEND experience socioeconomic hardship or poverty, as measured by FSM eligibility (Keslair & McNally, 2009; Shaw et al., 2016). Further, recent analysis demonstrates that poverty and/or social class and a label of SEND intersect in specific ways in schools, such that young people with special educational needs from poor or socially excluded backgrounds are particularly disadvantaged (Chatzitheochari & Butler‐Rees, 2022). To match the timing of assessments, the analysis for the phonics screening check will consider the characteristics of the cohort enrolled in Year 1, whereas the analysis for the KS1 assessments will use the characteristics of children in Year 2 7…”

“…These are powerful acts, as the labelling of young people often intersects with other axes of power, class, race and gender (Shaw et al., 2016; Youdell, 2010; Youdell & Armstrong, 2011). In addition, as Chatzitheochari and Butler‐Rees (2022) emphasise, the experience of young people with labels of SEND is intersectional, with those from poor and socially excluded backgrounds experiencing enhanced stigma, which influences their experiences of school and potentially their outcomes.…”

The Use of Augmented Reality to Promote Public Awareness for Deaf Workers

“…These situations are most often experienced by people with disabilities, who do not have the same rights and opportunities as others due to different health conditions. Persons with disabilities must make more significant efforts to fight for the order of others' behavior toward them and to equalize their social class [9]. The highlight of this study is public awareness of disability workers in Café Inklusi (Kopisaa).…”

The Mundane in the Digital: A Qualitative Study of Social Work and Vulnerable Clients in Danish Job Centres

“…Following this, other scholars have explored the constraints of structural power dynamics upon actors' felt sense of agency and 'stigma power' (Link and Phelan 2001;Müller 2020). Empirical studies within this vein reconceptualise stigma in relation to social class, socio-economic arrangements and intersectionality, emphasising the macro-structural factors that shape vulnerability and stigma (Alexandrescu and Spicer 2023;Chatzitheochari and Butler-Rees 2023).…”