Exploring underlying attitudes towards disabilities within black and minority ethnic (BME) informal support networks and its impact on young BME peopl

people in their transition to adulthood in the United Kingdom.

This proposal aims to address the gap in academic literature and theory exploring underlying attitudes from BME informal support networks towards disability and the impact this has upon young BME disabled individuals, with a view to maximise their transition to adulthood. First, the study will investigate the varying attitudes towards disabilities and its implications, from informal support networks and the wider BME society. Second, research will focus on the lived experiences and life courses of young BME disabled individuals, which remains relatively concealed within academic literature. Finally, the proposed study will provide a valuable contribution to understanding the complexities of the multiple identities emerging from the intersections of disability and ethnicity in the context of transitioning to adulthood. This proposal will instigate, develop and contribute to theories about the intersectional experiences, life courses and narratives of this concealed population at a holistic level, and how these characteristics interrelate. Employing the mixed-method approach, the proposal will feature online questionnaire in its first stage; data collected through this will bring to light varying attitudes towards disabilities, providing an important insight into a 'concealed community' within the wider BME society. The second stage will involve in-depth interviews in order to develop a comprehensive narrative of varying accounts with reference to the nature of the support given, process of making transitional decisions and implications of multiple identities in the lived experiences of young BME disabled people.