leisure and the wheelchair user with physical disabilities

researching social participation

Abstract

This study aims to answer the following question: in what perspective is social participation in leisure of adults with physical disabilities, who are wheelchair users, inscribed in scenarios of social microparticipation? For this purpose, the research was involved with participants from three groups dedicated to people with disabilities seeking to recognize the configuration of social participation in terms of conditions, dynamics and operative tools in their universe of action. Twenty one social actors and their groups were followed with qualitative methodology and hermeneutic-dialectical approach. The results point to conditions of power structure and conflict to the disadvantage of the disabled person. It is noted that the dynamics of the groups point them capable of favoring information and organization, but in a more affective than instrumental way. It is concluded that we need to advance educational assumptions within the groups that take into account the current power structure.