Interviews were conducted with 29 adult siblings of the handicapped and the mentally retarded. They were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to investigate how these siblings learn about, assign meaning to, and cope with their brothers' or sisters' disability and how the situation affected their own personal development. The results suggest that the siblings first realized there brothers or sisters were disabled when they perceived the distinction between how their parents treated them and what the situation was like for other children. When faced with social prejudices, they became embarrassed and more aware of their brother or sister's disability, and from about high school they began to truly understand what it meant. As a result, at around the age of twenty they could understand the disability better and adopted appropriate behavior based on their own situation; a situation in which they provided care and built strong relationships with their siblings. However, there were some did not think of their disabled siblings as shameful or did not try to better understand the situation.