Abstract

This chapter explores some of the foundational concepts around ageing with disability and outlines a framework for understanding the experiences and characteristics of the population of persons ageing with disability. The term persons ageing with disability refers to individuals who experience the onset of disability in early life or mid-life and who continue to experience disability over the life course. This population is international, heterogeneous, and comprises individuals living in diverse circumstances. The chapter touches on how the ageing with disability population is defined, its size, and why it is considered a relatively new and distinct population group. More importantly, it discusses ideas around the efficacy of bridging the segmented ageing and disability fields of research. The chapter shows that segmenting issues of ageing and disability has served an important purpose in developing specialised areas of research. However, it argues that bridging these two fields could advance work in the field of ageing with disability by linking and integrating existing theory and knowledge to inform policy and practice.