Strengths and limitations of the Inclusive Society research model: an autoethnography

Abstract

Purpose: The Inclusive Society partnership research model aims to promote change in society for people with disabilities by supporting research teams composed of researchers and partner organizations. The objective of this article is to identify the strengths and limitations of this research model.

Material and methods: An autoethnography approach was used. Thematic analysis of four methods was undertaken: semi-directed interviews with members of the research teams funded by Inclusive Society (researchers, partners), a focus group with the Inclusive Society’s intersectoral collaboration agents, their logbooks, and Inclusive Society’s annual reports.

Results: Strengths and limitations of the Inclusive Society model were identified through their networking activities, the role and support of the intersectoral collaboration agents and the partnership research program.

Conclusions: Networking activities are an essential element of Inclusive Society. They are indispensable for composing intersectoral research teams that will work on answering needs of people with disabilities. Intersectoral collaboration agents are also a strength of the model, but their role could be clarified to better frame what tasks are in their scope of practice and what the research teams could ask from them. Finally, the research program eligibility criteria could be improved to support, among others, the projects’ appropriation phases.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Networking activities stimulate the creation of intersectoral research teams centered on answering the needs of people with disabilities that are identified in the field

• Hired facilitators can play an important role in the emergence of research teams, merging the academic and non-academic worlds, and supporting the teams during their research project

• In participatory research projects, some funding should be reserved to support the partner organization’s participation and the appropriation phase of the research projects

Keywords:

• Partnership research
• participatory research
• handicap
• disabilities
• inclusion
• autoethnography
• research model

Acknowledgements

Supported by the Réseau provincial de recherche en adaptation-réadaptation (REPAR), the Ingénierie de technologies interactives en réadaptation (INTER) strategic cluster, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR), and the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et intégration sociale (Cirris), the Inclusive Society initiative is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (2017-2023). François Routhier is a senior research fellow with the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé. Maëlle Corcuff expresses her gratitude to the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société culture for the PhD scholarship she was awarded. Alexandra Tessier is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from CRIR and REPAR. Karine Latulippe is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé. The team would like to thank Fabienne Boursiquot and Émilie Blackburn for their involvement at different stages of this research project.

Ethical approval

This research was assessed and approved by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal Research Ethics Board. All participants gave their written informed consent.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec.