This is the second blog from Abraham (his first is available here), who has now completed a chapter for his PhD thesis, exploring what exactly disability means. Here, he discusses his PhD journey so far.

Over the past years when I decided to obtain my bachelor’s degree in Psychology, I never thought of doing Master’s degree let alone a PhD, to the extent of having a voice to present and share my infant and growing knowledge in disability studies. I enjoy learning, conducting research and I have always wanted live a purposeful life that will make a difference to others rather than having a journey in life without impact – just like a snake that slithers on a mountain without a trace of its path. Research skills gave me this sense of purpose to make a difference in life which I acquired during my BSc and Master’s thesis. Besides, with my background in psychology to Master’s level, I have learnt to understand that exploring the “atypical” population is not only one of the best ways to understand humanity but also one that could help provide solutions for issues facing the typical population. Therefore, understanding the needs of disabled people will help understand the needs of people not yet disabled.

Without disregarding the immense contribution of quantitative analysis, I have found it a bit disturbing in the way we often quantitatively measure by focusing on the average in the middle of a bell curve (majority) and pay less attention to the extreme quartiles where the minorities are situated. Focusing and drawing attention to the extreme quartiles is just as important as focusing on the average – every observation should count in any population in any research concept, apart from justifiable outliers. 

Starting my PhD research on disability inclusion for disabled academics has been an eye-opening experience in terms of understanding the complexity of disability as a concept. I have come to realise that disability is a universal phenomenon and it’s a complex subject. Disability means different things to different people. However, not all disabled persons that are legally classified as disabled identify themselves as being disabled (e.g., deaf community/linguistic minority and neurodiversity). It’s understood that being deaf can be considered as language barrier which many “non-disabled” could experience if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere in a different culture with different people while neurodiversity enlightens us more about the differences in the brain process as a natural human variation rather than a pathological disorder that needs to be cured. In contrast, even though non-disabled people don’t often see themselves as disabled, they might be experiencing disability but implicitly or explicitly fighting the fear of becoming disabled due to the stereotype or stigma attached to disability.

The reality is, disability is part of being human and we all to an extent are on a threshold with some kind of disability. For example, anxiety or depression that can constitute a disability or disabled experience whether one is diagnosed or not, depending on one’s continuum on the statistical diagnostic threshold of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Just because one’s disability does not have a long-lasting impact beyond 12 months does not mean that one is not having an impactful experience of disability – it just differs and depends on the nature of impairments and environmental factors (e.g., culture, economic or politics etc). Hence, disability can be experienced temporarily or permanently.

Moreover, it is fascinating how research is conducted with the various approach in disability studies across culture either with the use of the qualitative approach in exploring disabled people’s experience and quantitative approach for data representation of disabled people. Yet, what matters is using the appropriate research techniques for research questions in a specific population. The importance of this PhD research not only becomes apparent as a gap in the literature but also highlights the need to ensure that one of the most resourceful populations (disabled academics) in academia get research attention for change and development before their challenges (social and physical barriers) becomes too hot or difficult to handle, especially for those living and working with hidden impairments. 

One is not born a disabled person nor born a researcher but one is observed to be one.