Vulnerability at the intersection of poverty and disability

Abstract

This article examines the complex intersection of disability and poverty and uses the concept of vulnerability to consider disabled people situated at the margins of poverty. Vulnerability is regarded as an active area of research and an important policy focus for its preventative implications concerning poverty. However, the existing research on vulnerability, much like the bulk of the research on poverty, appears to be primarily concerned with statistical measures. This article is offered as an exploration of the analytical value of the vulnerability concept from a qualitative approach to illuminate the socioeconomic processes that are not easily apparent within a quantitative framework. The article reports on the findings of two research projects that focused on the intersection of poverty and disability. The goal of the projects was to gain an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the everyday lives of disabled pensioners from their own perspectives. We contend that the utility of the vulnerability concept lies in its focus on the numerous factors specific to disability/impairment that can, in isolation or in tandem, create conditions of socioeconomic vulnerability that increases the risks of poverty in ways that are not complicating factors for people whose problems are primarily related to unemployment or low wages. The concept of vulnerability is useful as it can help to consider disabled people who are situated at the margins of poverty and whose complex sociostructural and impairment-related issues can increase the chances of an individual or family falling into poverty and which can in turn make the extraction from poverty much more difficult. Vulnerability is not merely a passive state but can also engender creative coping strategies on the part of marginalised people and which can hopefully inspire policymakers to look beyond the traditional governmental responses to poverty.