Working it out together: Lessons and insights into inclusive research in an arts context

Background

I'm Me is a creative research project co-created between York St John University and Mind the Gap, investigating learning disabled and autistic artists’ understandings of identity, representation and voice.

Methods

In this paper, we use Walmsley and Johnson's criteria for inclusive research to reflect on the involvement of people with learning disabilities and autism in I'm Me.

Findings

Researchers need to carefully reflect on who benefits from research. Long-term relationships allow genuine allyship and for research design to emerge in an inclusive manner. Taking the time to develop access and clear structures for decision-making can support people with learning disabilities’ participation and control over research. Part of access is sharing our findings in accessible ways, in this case, by using plain language and artistic outputs.

Conclusions

Working out how people with learning disabilities and autism should be involved in research has involved establishing structures, reflecting and responding to create as much involvement and enable as much decision-making as possible.