Emerging Successful With Disabilities The Life Histories Of Four Persons With Disabilities

The main purpose of the study was to depict the lives of SPWDs comprehensively andrndocument their biographies. Four PWDs who are residing in Addis Ababa werernpurposively selected for this study. The research attempted to answer six basic questions.rnTo collect data three instruments; interview guide, focus group discussion guide, andrndocument analysis guide were developed In connection with this, letter of permissionrnwas taken from Special Need Department of A.A. U and then given to heads of ENAB,rnENAD, ENAPH, and ENAOD respectively. Necessary agreement was reached on thernpurpose of the study. And then, the heads informed potential participants for the studyrn•rnmore than once. Finally, the ideal respondents were identified and where made clearrnwith the objective of the study. Intimate relationship was established by the frequent visitrnand phone call made by the researcher. Participants were interviewed and involved inrnFGD both at their office and at A.A. U classroom for one participant for whom signrnlanguage interpreter was used Accordingly, tape recorder and note book was used tornrecord all data generated; starting from 25 of January up to March 30 of 2002 E.C.rnThen, the data were analyzed qualitatively; case by case. The result shows that, first, thernsocietal reaction towards participants' disabilities were negative that they were thoughtrnof worthless and turned ·more of positive after they became successful. Second, thernparticipants manifested negative reaction on the onset of their disabilities due to societalrnunpleasant reaction towards their disabilities and then gave favorable response at theirrnlatter ages. Third, among other challenges the respondents faced, societal negativernattitude was found the most stressful, as long as it is a day to day phenomenon. Fourth,rnthe participants have registered remarkable success benefiting themselves and thern•rncommunity. Fifth, the respondents' community participation was found to bernunsatisfactory. Six, ihe respondents success factors were found to be both of personalrnincluding self-esteem, self-efficacy, coping strategies and sources of strengths,rnaspirations and those of conducive environment including early familial experience andrnearly childhood education and school experience. Finally, on the bases of the studyrnfindings implications pertaining to PWDs and PWODs were drawn.

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