Research with People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Like many other people in our communities who have found themselves on the margins of society, people with intellectual disabilities have long been subject to research which sought to assess, categorise, predict and control their lives and behaviour (Tuhiwai Smith, 1999; Walmsley and Johnson, 2003). It is only relatively recently that they have begun to claim the right to participate in research ‘about them’, to have a voice in research projects and to be active as participants. It is only recently too that some researchers have begun to position differently both themselves and those with whom they are working. This relatively new paradigm of participatory or inclusive research is premised on a view that research undertaken with people with intellectual disabilities should aim to provide opportunities for them to claim a voice in research, to have their skills and experience in their own lives valued and challenge societal inequalities (Atkinson, 2004; Goodley, 1996; Ward, 1997). Such research also challenges the ‘othering’ which pushes people to the edges of society (Traustadóttir, 2001). Undertaking this kind of research involves a constant challenge to the researchers’ own prejudices, biases and the ways in which they view their own position as experts.