Researching Together: Researchers With and Without Disabilities Engage Across National and Interdisciplinary Boundaries

Introduction

The Relationships and Sexuality Research Team consists of researchers with learning disabilities who specialise in research on sexual citizenship and use visual and creative research methods. They are collaborating with academics on an innovative, cross-national, interdisciplinary and co-produced research project that brings together research teams from Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Together, we gauged how effective this way of working was for use with an international research team.

Methods

Each of the 10 researchers participated in an interview using graphic narrative to co-create their story in comic form, uncover the origin stories and motivating elements of our mutual involvement and identify, in a formative way, conditions of equitable participation. Two focus groups followed this to explore perceptions and experiences of this project, one with the researchers with learning disabilities and one with the non-disabled academics and practitioner-researchers.

Results

Many benefits were identified. This approach fosters learning new perspectives and innovative research methods, leading to meaningful and equitable research outcomes. However, we identified various barriers relating to power and communication due to professional jargon, cultural terminology, speech and articulation differences, accents and online communication. This led us to devise several strategies to implement to work towards more inclusive research.

Conclusion

For research teams with diverse teams, there needs to be the opportunity to build trust and find common ground. Reflecting on the process and making changes early on is crucial, as well as focusing on inclusion and equity rather than agendas.