The Lived Experience of Saudis' with Physical Disabilities when Interacting with Healthcare Providers in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Reflecting on the current condition of people with physical disabilities in Saudi Arabia, the literature generally features the exclusion of local knowledge from Saudis with physical disabilities, the reliance on the medical model, and the continued dependence on imported Western resources. Unlike the majority of the literature, this study addresses the lack of voices from people with physical disabilities in Saudi Arabia, which continues to be silent. Thus, the purpose of this study was to present the underrepresented dialogues and perspectives of people with physical disabilities when interacting with health care providers in Saudi Arabia.
This study used a Homi Bhabha’s conception of the third space, a post-colonial perspective, as a theoretical framework. Hermeneutic phenomenology was employed to illuminate the essence of the lived experience. A purposeful sample of seven Saudi men and women with disabilities were recruited, and the audiotaped face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in Arabic. It was through these conversations that a co-created interpretation of their experiences emerged. The findings of this study revealed that Saudis with physical disabilities’ perception of disability was colonized by the medical discourse that commenced at the early age and continued throughout their interaction with their healthcare professionals. Another factor was that the medical professionals have excluded people with disabilities from any relevant medical knowledge about their disability. This study also explores how the participants demonstrated their resistance to the colonizing discourse by operating in the third space. Since the role of the medical professionals is to continually provide and improve the care for their clients, examining this interaction within the third space serves to support and strengthen a new way of approaching people with disabilities within a client-centred approach. Through this interpretive investigation, the wonderment of what it may be like for a person with physical disabilities to interact with their healthcare provider continues as this study has provided an opportunity for further understanding and questioning to emerge.
Description
Keywords
Rehabilitation and Therapy
Citation
Albagmi, F. (2016). The Lived Experience of Saudis' with Physical Disabilities when Interacting with Healthcare Providers in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28235