Research about citizenship and disability: a scoping review

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the characteristics of peer-reviewed literature on citizenship and disability published in English from 1985 to 2015.

Method: A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. Several databases were searched for peer-reviewed journal articles including the terms citizenship and disability, impairment or handicap in their abstract or title; published between 1985 and 2015; in English.

Results: A total of 295 articles were included. Key findings are (1) the number of articles about disability and citizenship increased dramatically over the past three decades, (2) the meaning of citizenship is often left undiscussed, (3) citizenship is more often discussed in terms of access to social rights and less so in regards to contributions to society and participation in family life, technology and culture, (4) disabled people tend to be represented as a homogeneous category, (5) most studies are qualitative and non-participatory.

Conclusions: To broaden knowledge about the situation, membership and participation of persons with disabilities in society, further research should develop the conceptual use of citizenship in relation to disability, explore different research designs, investigate various citizenship sectors and take into account the complexity of personal and social situations of persons with disabilities.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• The notion of citizenship is closely related to the goals of rehabilitation as it touches upon issues of membership and participation in society;

• Understanding the multiple dimensions of citizenship will help practitioners to design and improve rehabilitation treatments and connect these not only to social citizenship rights but also to the various social roles and contributions of persons with disabilities;

• A better understanding of the complex relationship between citizenship and disability on the part of practitioners is crucial since strategies and policy documents about persons with disabilities often mention citizenship.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• participation
• rights

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Rafael Lindqvist and Sandra Torres as well as the research group “Welfare and Life-Course” based at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University for their constructive suggestions on earlier versions of this article and during the whole process of this scoping review.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest.

Funding information

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Communities' Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n° 320079.