Who Says What, Where, Why and How? Doing Real-World Research with Disabled Children, Young People and Family Members

Abstract

There is an increasing body of social science research and writing that explores the lives of disabled children, young people, their families and allies. Much of this in recent years has been linked to work funded by government or services with an evaluative and applied focus — although there have been some important exceptions that have taken a more holistic approach to understanding the lives of disabled children and young people (for example, Connors & Stalker, 2003; Goodley & Runswick-Cole, 2012; Shakespeare, Barnes, Priestly, Cunninghambirley, Davis & Watson, 1999). The emphasis on applied, service-orientated research has sometimes meant that less attention has been paid to the methodological aspects of research with this group of children and young people and the context in which the ‘talk’ of the research encounter is produced. Watson (2012), for example, notes that research rarely examines the interplay between disabled children’s experiences and their social setting. I have written about this elsewhere in relation to the dynamics of the interviewer/interviewee relationship (Abbott, 2012), as have many others, but less has been written in the social science literature on childhood disability about the detail of other aspects of the interactions, and notably questions about where interviews happen and who else is present.