by Ariella Meltzer
Often siblings of people with disabilities experience a range of life changes during young adulthood – such as making new relationships, learning to drive, moving out of home, finishing school and starting work – that they see their brothers and sisters with disabilities have more difficulty reaching or that they believe their brother or sister may not reach at all. Often this is a difference between them that young adult siblings of people with disabilities feel is uncomfortable, unequal or inequitable – sometimes they feel guilt about their opportunities compared to their brother or sister.
It is something that is often hard for siblings to discuss with their brothers and sisters, because talking about inequality can be difficult. But this means that often siblings of people with disabilities do not know much about what their brother or sister really thinks of the comparison between their experiences. What if this was a missed opportunity to discover that young people with disabilities may have a different way of thinking about the situation?
New research is available where young adult siblings both with and without disabilities share their perspectives about the comparison of their life experiences during young adulthood. The research shows that young people with disabilities have a broad range of views about the comparison that might be interesting for their siblings without disabilities to know more about.
Check out a blog post about the research findings here: https://siblingleadership.org/siblings-without-disabilities-think-differently-comparison-young-adult-experiences-matters/
The full research article is available for free in the month of December 2017. You can download it here: https://doi.org/10.1332/096278917X15015139344438
