ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about how individuals live with impairment and disability. It looks at different facets of impairment and disability across the life course, from childhood to old age. Shared experiences, like becoming disabled, rehabilitation, independent living and violence and abuse, may be experienced at any age. Discussions of the 'disability paradox' are often qualified with the observation that impairments that involve considerable pain, whether physical or mental, are less compatible with a good quality of life. Health conditions associated with disability are rarer in childhood than at later stages of life. A key moment for many disabled people is when they meet other disabled people. People who have been independently living with disability all their lives will not tolerate being excluded, and may be able to share strategies and attitudes with other people who are becoming disabled in later life. People with learning difficulties, of all disabled people, seem the most likely to become victims of violence and abuse.
