Are individuals with disabilities and their families "resilient"? Deconstructing and recasting a well-intended concept.

Abstract

This article contributes to existing scholarship related to resilience in families with members with disabilities by first using a disability studies orientation to "unbound" existing definitions of resilience, then by providing empirical illustration of this unbounding. Using family as our unit of analysis, we present data from 3 families who navigate successes and challenges related to disability. Three themes of honoring relationships, family member expertise, and standing in one's power emerged. We suggest that more nuanced understandings of resilience, which account for fluid, localized perspectives and encompass contradictory meanings and processes (e.g., stress and joy), have implications for policy and practice.