A Qualitative Study on the Formation of Open Perception and Transformative Learning Experiences of Non-disabled Learners through Participation in Lifelong Education for Persons with Disabilities

This study explores the transformative learning experiences of non-disabled adult learners who participate in lifelong education programs for persons with disabilities. Narrative interviews were conducted with seven non-disabled citizens who took part in a barrier-free walking program at a public lifelong learning center in City A, and the data was analyzed using an analytic framework that reconfigures Mezirow’s four stages of transformative learning by incorporating emotion, space, identity, and practice. The findings show that encounters and shared walks with disabled people led participants to experience disorienting dilemmas in which their ignorance, stereotypes, and non-disabled everyday norms were questioned through spatial shock and embodied emotional identification. These experiences fostered perspective transformations in which disabled people were re-recognized not as objects to help but as fellow citizens, and were translated into everyday civic practices such as monitoring accessibility and intervening in situations of discrimination. The study suggests that lifelong education for persons with disabilities should be designed as a mutual learning space that intentionally organizes such encounters, emotional engagement, and spatial experiences to promote transformative learning among non-disabled adults.