What is it about?
Peer support can help adults who have acquired a visual impairment to adjust to life with blindness. Newly blind adults may also receive strong signals from their peers about who they are and how they are expected to behave in order to access social inclusion and acceptance. This paper explores the meanings about blindness that circulate in peer support interventions and the impact that these have on the formation of authentic and positive blind identities.
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Why is it important?
Considering the identity-level impact of peer support is important to promote holistic rehabilitative interventions. It is also important that those who facilitate peer support recognise the role of these services in either promoting or hindering the development of secure and empowered communities of visually impaired persons.
Perspectives
This paper reports on findings from my doctoral work on the ways in which rehabilitation services influence the self-identities of newly blind adults in South Africa. My interest in this area stems from my own experience as both a user and a provider of visual impairment rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation sets the tone for how people who have experienced sight loss move into life with blindness. It is therefore crucial that those who plan, provide and evaluate these services recognise the material, psycho-emotional and identity-level impact of this work.
Michelle Botha
Stellenbosch University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comparison, othering, and surveillance: Foucauldian discourse analysis of peer support in visual impairment rehabilitation services in South Africa., Rehabilitation Psychology, June 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/rep0000565.
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