Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to examine the community livving and
participation of people with disabilities with their sighted counterparts. The case
study design was used for the study. The sample size was 16. These comprised
12 people with disabilities and 4 non-disabled peers. The method for data
collection was interviews. The purposive sampling technique was used to select
the sample size. Data was analysed thematically. Results from the study showed
that most people with disabilities do not participate fully in the community. The
study concluded that community living and participation of people with
disabilities was partial due to some environmental, policies and self-perceptions
of people with disabilities and the non-disabled in the community. It was
recommended that the self-perceptions of people with disabilities need to be
improved upon through counselling during their associations meeting and also
through active participation in community activities whenever possible. Also
playing and working together on activities in the community should be adopted
by the non-disabled to boost the nature of friendships in the community, since
such activities proved to be effective in predicting friendships in the community.
It was also recommended that regular advocacy be done to educated community
members on disability issues to minimize prejudice and misconceptions.
