‘The way they treat us reflects how they see us’: Aspects contributing to social inequities in people with visual disability, a qualitative study

Abstract

People with visual disabilities encounter multiple barriers in their life experiences, placing them at a social disadvantage compared to sighted individuals. These barriers manifest in a limited access to and exercise of their rights, situations perceived as unfair or inequitable. The present research aimed to understand how inequities are configured in people with visual disabilities, based on practices and perceptions of fairness/unfairness and their expression in relation to access to material goods and services. An instrumental ethnographic case study was conducted within a community-based institution in Bucaramanga, Colombia, focusing on rehabilitation and social inclusion processes for individuals with visual disabilities and their families. Twenty-two semistructured interviews and 37 participant observation exercises were carried out and documented in a field diary. The emerging categories were (1) the family can be an obstacle or an aid in overcoming social injustices; (2) visual disability is a label, it is in the environment, in the way society recognizes it; and (3) from social exclusion to willingly-given inclusion. Our results indicate that inequities are configured primarily in relation to how people close to those with visual disabilities perceive and act towards them, constituting scenarios of cultural injustice (non-recognition). Part of the meanings and practices that people uphold are based on the view of a body considered outside the canon of normality and the non-recognition of a full citizenship, conditioning discriminatory (such as charity and infantilization), stigmatizing and excluding practices. The inclusion of this population group is mediated by the sensibility of the sighted other, a situation that conditions that the access and full enjoyment of rights is a matter of will.