ABSTRACT
The term ‘identity’, in the social context, relates to the various ways in which individuals or groups view and understand themselves. In simple terms, having a sense of identity means ‘knowing who you are’ (Kidd and Teagle, 2012, p. 25). Social identity is determined, to some extent, by the social roles that people perform, such as being a parent or having a particular job, and the social groups or categories to which they belong. Disability itself is the basis of one such social group, but disabled people may also identify with a number of other social groups, defined on the basis of shared characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, class, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, occupation or a common interest. It is clear, therefore, that disabled people do not constitute a homogenous group, and that the process of identity forming is likely to vary greatly from one individual to another. As Simon Brisenden (1986) points out:
