RESOURCES: Review - What life is like living with a disabledsibling

Previous research has tended to assume that being a part of a family unit that included a disabled sibling would result in the non-disabled siblings experiencing psychologically damaging effects. However, the majority of young people interviewed held a positive outlook. The exceptions to this finding mirrored sibling relationships within family units that did not contain a disabled child, in other words not all young people are able to live together harmoniously simply because of family ties.

The overall impression left by reading this book was one of "ordinary" lives - "so, I have a disabled sibling - so what?". The disabled young people included within the research all had personal experience of frustration, exclusion and a lack of a common-sense approach by service providers to the reality of growing up as a disabled person in a society that is largely constructed around the needs and desires of non-disabled people. Despite this obvious social disadvantage, the majority of disabled young people "got on" with their lives.