Disability Research by Disabled and Non‐Disabled People: Towards a Relational Methodology of Research Production

Abstract

This paper explores some of the problems and opportunities that may derive from the development of working relationships between disabled and non‐disabled researchers. First a number of key barriers that face disabled researchers from the outset of research are sketched out. However, these barriers are not dwelt on as they have been documented and challenged well by others. Rather, in seeking to identify good research practice that can challenge such barriers, it is suggested that enabling modes of research production may often be uncovered through a careful examination of the working relationships between members of research teams. This approach is illustrated through a discussion of a range of relational issues that have impacted upon the authors’ own research partnership: (i) Relating in research: Tackling fears and issues around self‐disclosure; (ii)Psychoanalytic sensitivity: Privileging ontological experience and reflexivity; (iii) Towards a feminist ethics of care: Challenging methodological individualism; and (iv) Interdependence in research: towards enriched analysis. In terms of advancing an agenda for inclusive disability research, it is believed that making explicit the complexity of disabled/non‐disabled research relationships like this is one practical way in which general assumptions of a binary disabled/non‐disabled split may be challenged, whilst simultaneously recognizing that equitable working partnerships can only derive from the equal valuing of difference.

Acknowledgement

Our thanks to go to the Economic and Social Research Council for funding this work (ESRC project grant RES‐000‐23‐0129). Our colleagues at the University of Newcastle Dr Janice McLaughlin and Dr Emma Clavering have provided invaluable support and feedback on this paper. Please see the project website for details of their publications and other dissemination that brings together analyses from both sides of the project: http://www.shef.ac.uk/inclusive‐education/disabledbabies/

Notes

[1] See http://www.ecu.ac.uk/disability

[2] See http://www.shef.ac.uk/inclusive‐education/jobsnotcharity

[3] See http://www.drc‐gb.org

[4] See http://www.dpi.org

[5] ESRC reference RES‐000‐23‐0129. This work is being undertaken with colleagues at the University of Newcastle—Janice McLaughlin and Emma Clavering—though this paper reflects predominantly on the early research and fieldwork issues emerging from the Sheffield site. See http://www.shef.ac.uk/inclusive‐education/disabledbabies/index.htm

[6] See http://www.shef.ac.uk/inclusive‐education/disabledbabies for more details.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire Tregaskis

Claire Tregaskis is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health & Social Work at the University of Plymouth. Dan Goodley is part of the Applied Disability Studies Research Cluster at the University of Sheffield.