Predicting Disability Self-Identification: A Mixed-Methods Approach.

Abstract

In this dissertation, nearly three thousand (n = 2,764) people with disabilities completed a 31-question, fully accessible, online survey about the experience of disability. Both our survey and our methods combined quantitative and qualitative techniques. The aim of our study was to measure the rates at which people with various medical conditions self-identify as a person with a disability, and to uncover factors which predict said self-identification. Findings indicate that most people with disabilities do self-identify as disabled, and that the type, severity, and visibility of a person’s disability are the strongest factors to predict disability self-identification.