Disability Recognition and Occupational Participation in Chronic Conditions and Acquired Disabilities: A Scoping Review

Chronic illness and acquired disability reshape everyday life through both functional change and the ways disability is recognized and interpreted. This scoping review mapped qualitative evidence on disability recognition in adults with chronic conditions or acquired disabilities, focusing on how these processes become visible through occupational participation. Following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) reporting, we conducted iterative searches, including a focused supplementary CINAHL search, and included peer-reviewed qualitative studies with accessible English full text. Eighty-three studies were included and positioned as Group A (core evidence; n = 32) or Group B (contextual evidence; n = 51). Group A findings were integrated into six interacting domains: Identity change, everyday-life disruption, rebuilding of everyday life, temporal processes, social recognition and role adjustment, and construction of a new normal. The framework positions occupational participation as a practical medium through which disability recognition is negotiated and reorganized.