The article is a short report compiled on the basis of the survey research focusing on disabled people’s conceptions of their own everyday life and of social attitudes towards impairment. The survey examined the ways of experiencing life, with regard to the following categories: self-perception; perceiving environmental attitudes towards visible disability; emotional and behavioural reactions to the patterns of behaviour displayed by the environment; assessing one’s own relations with other people; making an overall evaluation of the society’s approach to disability. The author also presents three main theoretical theses regarding shaping social attitudes towards the disabled, as well as outlines the leading strategies which people with disabilities employ in order to cope with critical situations. These are constructive and destructive strategies, related to young people’s approach to life – a positive attitude (encouraging development) and a negative one (hindering development).