Source: University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living, or RTC/IL
Living in a small town can be challenging for anyone. For people with disabilities, rural areas can create even more serious barriers to accomplishing the things they want to do.
However, with the help of a trait known as resilience, many people with disabilities who live in rural areas have achieved a good quality of life and are able to participate in their communities.
“Some people do well in life because they face few obstacles to meeting their goals: they are healthy, they have parents who are well-educated and have the resources to provide their children with a good education, and they have the support they need,” said Jean Ann Summers, research director at the University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living, or RTC/IL.
The resilience study – which is still ongoing – didn’t focus on this group of people, though.
“Other people do well in life despite the obstacles that they face,” Summers said. “They may have grown up poor, they may have a disability, they may live in a community where few jobs or other opportunities are available. And yet they thrive. They are able to achieve their goals and have a satisfying life in the community in spite of the odds that are against them. We say those people are ‘resilient.’”
Summers and her collaborators Dot Nary, assistant research professor at the RTC/IL, and Heather Lassmann, graduate research assistant, set out to identify what Summers calls “the secrets of success” that resilient people with disabilities employ to successfully live in rural communities. Their work is part of larger project based at the University of Montana Research and Training Center on the Ecology of Rural Disability.
“The study is important because if we can find out what people who are naturally resilient do, we can design a program to teach others how to be resilient,” Nary said. Read more at the RTC/IL website.
