“I appreciate birding more”: Exploring and reframing experiences of disabled birders using a strengths-based approach

While being disabled is often considered a deficit that creates only problems, in reality every human has interests, values, skills, knowledge and external supports that can act as strengths when participating in recreation. Indeed, many disabled birders anecdotally report experiencing positives of birding with a disability, and the inherent modifiability of birding may allow disabled birders to experience different ways of engaging with this activity. We conducted a survey of disabled birders (n=147), then used inductive coding to analyze the responses to an open-ended question (n=106) about the positives of birding they experience. These responses included themes of slowing down, identifying more birds, noticing more details of birds, and feeling a sense of belonging in nature. This reconsidering of disability using a strengths-based approach creates opportunities for disabled birders and bird-related programming to focus on aspects of birding that may be more in line with disabled birders’ interests, experiences and strengths. It also creates a new avenue for nature organizations to engage with up to a quarter of the population who may feel excluded due to disability. This study contributes to the literature by exploring a rarely studied topic of disabled birders’ experiences using a strengths-based approach to studying disability in outdoor recreation.