The research on siblings of individuals with disabilities has rarely addressed the perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability. The existing research on the experience of siblings of persons with disabilities is also limited to European American families (Sage & Jegatheesan, 2010). With families from different cultures, I sought to capture the experiences of brothers and sisters who have siblings with disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships of siblings with disabilities and typical developing siblings, and present a holistic picture from the perspective of the typical developing siblings. These gaps in the literature will be addressed by interviewing siblings about their experiences of coping with adversity, the perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability, and how the perceptions of the person with a disability by professionals, parents, and other family members has impacted their experiences. Participants were recruited from a pool of persons already known to the researcher and through a “snowball” approach (Hays & Singh, 2012), resulting in a heterogeneous group of eight participants. Interpretive phenomenology was the theoretical lens used for this study, as the purpose of it is to interpret and understands one’s described experiences. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to interview each of the participants three times. Themes emerged in the areas of the challenges of having a sibling with a disability, coping with those challenges, and perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability. Lastly, messages for families, educators, professionals and future researchers are shared.

This thesis focuses on the dilemmas linked to the future of the affected sibling and the ensuing arguments, which in the future may help to siblings without disabilities in their decisions on the future sibling with a disability. The introduction defines basic fundamental concepts: combined disability, mental retardation and associated with the most common combinations of disability. Subsequently, the work is focused on the complexity and pitfalls associated with caring for people with multiple disabilities. On the sibling relationship, which can have a big impact on the future of siblings with disabilities, but also on the possible reasons causing disability and dilemmas associated with it based on the future care of siblings with disabilities. Furthermore dissertation discusses the possible variants of care that might siblings without disabilities to facilitate their decision-making and assist in the eventual home care. In the next part closer look at the particular dilemmas, with whom, according to interviews siblings without disabilities might face in the future. Individual dilemmas was determined on the basis of the research probe that howled implemented method of qualitative research through interviews with siblings of people with multiple disabilities. Towards the end of the thesis is to analyze the chosen dilemma, which is subject to the conclusion obsáhlému analysis from the perspective of two ethical theories - utilitarianism and deontology.