Forschungsprojekt
Projektart: } Gefördertes Projekt
Alt werden mit Behinderung - mittendrin ein Leben lang

The research methodology consists of qualitative interviews accompanied by a small quantitative survey in order to relate the interviewees’ relevant social characteristics to their specific accounts. Interviewees are persons who have lived with various impairments since earlier stages of their lives and who have now reached old age and/or retirement. As many people with impairments notice the effects of aging earlier than non-disabled persons, the age limit was set at 50. The goal was to arrive at a highly heterogeneous sample in terms of impairments, housing, living situations and gender. The study focuses on disabled people in the new Laender, the former GDR, as living conditions for disabled people there still differ from those in the rest of Germany. Thus, the study will also shed light on the changes disabled people there experienced after reunification. Participants were mainly acquired via the ABiD and its partners as well as the interviewers’ personal social networks. Interviews are conducted by ten tandem teams of interviewers, consisting of a student and a person with disabilities. Finally, the content of the interviews is evaluated via computer-based qualitative analysis (MAXQDA) based on the principles of Grounded Theory. The results of the study comprise the following topics: medical care living/housing conditions support networks interest groups and associations experiences and problems with cost bearing institutions future prospects