ABSTRACT
Life stories represent a complex combination of individual and social factors and can reveal both the past perspectives of interviewees as well as their present-day interpretations (cf. Rosenthal 2005 ). The ‘reconstruction’ of life stories thus provides insight into the processes of identity formation, maintenance and change. This research technique can illuminate the biographical experience of living with a physical or sensory disability and also help to understand how disability is treated a particular society. In this chapter, I discuss the life stories and lived realities of 16 students with one or more physical impairments in three areas ( megye ) of Hungary. I examine how the students integrate disability and its effects in their lives and biographies, including changes over the life course. I focus on disability-related discrimination and stigmatisation in the context of self-esteem and ascription by others, looking at how these processes are affected by individual biographical experiences as well as collective events such as historical and political developments in Hungary.
