"All of the problems of poverty are brought because of being disabled": Particularities of poverty experienced by persons with disabilities in Western Province

BACKGROUND: In qualitative research about the lived experience of disability in Western Province in Zambia, persons with disabilities spoke frequently and emphatically about poverty. This is unsurprising as this province is consistently identified as having high levels of poverty. However, in the participants’ narratives, it was striking that poverty was often presented as a condition experienced exclusively by persons with disabilities. This finding creates a dilemma for efforts to address poverty among persons with disabilities: should their poverty be thought of as distinct from, or similar to, the poverty experienced by persons without disabilities? Purpose: To explore how these people with disabilities discussed poverty, with particular attention to narratives that are particular to persons with disabilities and those that could be common to persons with and without disabilities. METHODS: This study was a secondary analysis of data generated for a constructionist qualitative research project. The participants were 81 persons with diverse forms of disability from an urban and a rural community in Western Province. Data were generated through eight focus group discussions and 39 interviews. In the primary analysis, emergent nodes were derived from the transcribed data using NVivo 10. Nodes related to poverty were reviewed through the secondary data analysis to address the study purpose. RESULTS: The secondary analysis identified multiple aspects of the experience of poverty that were particular to the situation of these persons with disabilities. These aspects included those where a disability reduced the ability to acquire resources through loans, income, or physical tasks. There were also increased expenses related to disability, such as paying for things that others just do, or the costs to mothers with disabilities to raising children after being abandoned by their husbands. Other aspects of the experience of poverty were not clearly traced to disability. Examples of these included restricted access to starter capital for small business ventures and cost barriers to education and skills training. CONCLUSIONS: This study helps to inform a “twin-track approach” to poverty alleviation and development. The aspects of the poverty experience that are particular to persons with disabilities are potential targets for disability-specific action. Other aspects could be common to the experience of poverty for persons with and without disabilities and therefore opportunities for persons with disabilities to seek inclusion into the mainstream movements.