Meaning of Disability and Management of its Visibility: a Review of a Qualitative Inquiry on People with Oligodactyly

Abstract

In this commentary, I discuss the contribution of the target article (Sulaeman et al. 2020) and suggest further study in terms of research on psychosocial issues of people with physical disabilities. The authors of the target article qualitatively analyzed the disability-related experiences of people with oligodactyly in a rural village in Indonesia, employing the theories of stigma (Goffman 1963) and illness narrative (Kleinmann 1988). First, the authors effectively found the meanings of the participants’ minor daily experiences by focusing on their physical organ abnormalities. Oligodactyly is visible and mild, rather than other disabilities such as spinal cord injury. A detailed analysis is required to clarify the effect of disability. The authors found that their bodily differences and disorders had multifaceted meanings rather than negative ones only. Another finding was that “God” was referred to as a mediator connecting diverse meanings and places revealing uncertain experiences. Additionally, I discuss that the visibility of oligodactyly depends on the context, and that visible or invisible dichotomy is not suitable for studying psychosocial issues. I argue that people with mild disabilities face the dilemma of disclosing their condition to others. My suggestion for further study is to examine the development of disability meaning from a long-term perspective to elucidate the meaning’s evolution through the participant’s interaction with family, community, and area outside that village. The concept of narratives in cultural psychology, such as Bruner (2002)‘s narrative mode of thinking, was useful; narrative was interfering with the future, past, and present (Valsiner 2007).