The Interaction Between Disability Status and the African American Experience: Implications for Rehabilitation Counseling

Abstract

This article provides information that is useful to rehabilitation counselors and human service professionals providing services to African Americans with disabilities. The potential double bias of being African American and disabled is examined in the article. Special focus is on the similarities in stigmas experienced by persons with disabilities and members of the African American community and how the interaction between minority race status and disability status effects the delivery of rehabilitation services to African Americans. The client-centered approach is described and suggested as a theoretical orientation to be adopted by rehabilitation counselors to lessen the impact of a double stigma on this population.