Persons With Disabilities’ Experiences of Microaggression: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

Microaggressions against persons with disabilities are pervasive in everyday life, causing significant harm to the health, well-being, and social mindset of the victims. However, qualitative research exploring the lived experience of persons with disabilities remains unsynthesized. This qualitative review aims to gather global evidence on experiences of microaggressions among people with disabilities and to explore how they understand and respond to such incidents. We systematically searched the relevant literature across databases, including EBSCO, Web of Science, PubMed, Elsevier ScienceDirect, ProQuest, ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global, and Google Scholar. After removing duplicates and applying exclusion criteria, we identified and included a total of 23 articles. Using a meta-synthesis approach, we identified four key categories: the inescapable web of microaggressions, persons with disabilities being stalled in the slough of microaggressions, obedience to and even defense of the aggressor, and proactive acts of resistance. These findings carry significant implications for seeking to improve programs to address disability microaggressions.