The Process of Subjective Disability Acceptance in Persons with Cervical Cord Injury

Title: The Process of Subjective Disability Acceptance in Persons with Cervical Cord Injury. Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the process of subjective disability acceptance before and after the acceptance of disability in persons with cervical cord injury. Methods and Findings: We conducted a semi-structured interview with 10 people with cervical cord injury living at home. Analysis of the data yielded 23 categories and 62 subcategories. Although some categories were observed in many cases, few categories were observed in all cases, showing that the disability acceptance process was not uniform and that it differed in all the 10 cases. Furthermore, after the injury, some of the participants sometimes felt that they had not been injured, thereby indicating the importance of long-term psychological support for community-dwelling people with cervical cord injury. Conclusion: These results suggest that there is a need for support for persons with cervical cord injury to continue living at home, such as 1) long-term psychological support for community-dwelling people with cervical cord injury; 2) prevention of secondary disability; 3) financial support, such as offering employment to enable them to support their life.