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ToolsReason, Matthew, Acton, Kelsie and Foulds, Daniel (2024) Working it out together: lessons and insights into inclusive research in an arts context. British Journal Of Learning Disabilities, 52 (4). pp. 676-686. ISSN 1468-3156
Abstract
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.
KEYWORDS
collaborative practice, ethics, learning (intellectual) disabilities
Accessible Summary
• I'm Me is an inclusive research project. As an inclusive research project, people
with learning disabilities need to be involved and care about the research. Non‐
learning disabled researchers need to respect people with learning disabilities.
• We tried to make I'm Me inclusive and we learned that:
• Non‐learning disabled people need to build long‐term working relationships with
people with learning disabilities and their support organisations.
• Non‐learning disabled people need to think about if the research is serving
learning disabled people.
• Understanding access needs takes time and energy. Everyone needs to work on
access.
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