In addition to the broader experience of disability, it is also common for persons to identify and form social, political and economic relationships around types of disability. Community and culture, then, may be understood in terms of multiple levels of experience and identification, that which is held and experienced within the larger disability community, that which occurs as a result of membership within categories of disability, and the experience that emerges as a result of interactions with the dominant or majority community. It is within this broad definition of community and culture, which includes the intertwined biological, economic, social, and structural relationships of the disability experience, that community emerges and is experienced. This framework sets forth a perspective for appreciation of how those experiences are different from non-disability experiences. Disability is not to be understood as a contrast to non-disability.
Disability exists as a constellation of the experiences.
The discussions of stigma by the non-disabled are commonly based upon a belief that we are integrating their perceptions of disability into our beliefs and ideas. A more accurate reading is that the non-disabled assert that disability is negative and needs to be overcome and therefore must include the experience of stigma. The experience of disability often changes and evolves over time. Our experiences following the initial diagnosis, trauma or experience of illness, may be quite different three, four, five and 10 years later. As with the non-disabled, we adapt, adjust, and learn to accommodate.