Beyond Engagement: Lived Expertise and User-Led Innovation for Disability Inclusion

Dear Colleagues,

For many decades the field of inclusive education and its platform of new knowledge has stemmed from so-called experts of research and science, academics, professors, researchers, policy makers, national and international government body leaders. Whilst there have been significant developments regarding participatory and/or  emancipatory forms of education research (Nind and Seale, 2014; Gibson and Zeta, 2023; May, 2024), many Disabled Peoples Organisations and related third sector bodies position much of this published work as ineffectual attempts that continuously reflect ingrained inequalities and cultural hegemony regarding research ownership, research purpose, output, and impact (Sharpe et al. 2021). It is argued in some sources that little has changed since French (1997), Barnes (1993, 2003) and Oliver (1992) published their seminal work 30 plus years ago, calling for radical repositioning on who determines, who owns and who leads on disability inclusion (Watharow and Wayland, 2022; Nind, 2017; Gibson et al., 2017).  

The editors of this Special Issue are both professors of inclusive education at the University of Plymouth and the University of Wolverhampton. They benefit from lived experience that supports their research in disability inclusion and 15 plus years of collaborating with the third sector and policy leaders. They have worked together for over a decade on research and publications in this field, emphasising the need for inclusive research by design and essential practices of equitable partnership with the disabled community. Their work has evidenced how meaningful and sustained change for disability inclusion-educationally, socially, systemically and culturally can occur if design considerations and partnership practices are prioritised in this field. This edition takes a strengths-based and rights-based perspective on ‘disability’ that centres on people being disabled by societal challenges, ingrained systemic cultures, hegemony, prejudice and related barriers. This Special Issue emphasises the role lived expertise, user knowledge, and leadership bring to the field of disability inclusion.

According to Watharow and Wayland (2022, p1), “There are vast unknowns as to what the qualitative inquiry space looks like when lived experience researchers engage in data collection and translation of research findings”. This position is reinforced in the work of Hall (2014), Welikala and Atkin (2014) and Gibson & Williams-Brown (2023), where user knowledge, collaboration and collective knowledge building are shown to be continuously underexplored in the literature. May (2024) presents the case for critical pedagogy as an informant of multi-disciplinary approaches and equitable participatory research methodology. She argues (May 2024, p6), “critical pedagogy and participatory research can provide frameworks for equitable partnerships and genuine participation in educational design and research practices”. In line with this, the editors of this Special Issue argue an inclusive approach to research means taking a step back from traditional research methodology, questioning with our co-researchers and project participants if what we are doing is inclusive from their perspective/lived experience and developing innovative new approaches and practices from that space. We must ensure that research moves beyond tokenistic engagement to meaningful user-led collaboration and co-creation of outputs that support sustained and meaningful changes in policy, practice and culture.

This Special Issue gives a platform to the question and practice of meaningful and equitable engagement in disability inclusion research, its outputs and impact. Authors can submit abstracts that focus on disability inclusion, including intersectionality matters across education sectors from Early Childhood to Higher Education and social inclusion. The edition will prioritise publications from authors and groups of research-practitioners who have worked collectively to deliver outputs that genuinely stem from lived experience, are user-led and resulted in system change and impact for equality. It also invites submissions which consider the sociological, political and historical evolution of this discipline and invites papers that call for and evidence representative intersectional approaches that embody disability.

References

Barnes, C. (2003). What a Difference a Decade Makes: Reflections on doing ‘emancipatory’ disability research. Disability & Society, 18(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/713662197.

French, Sally et al. Changing Disability Research: Participating and Emancipatory Research with Disabled People, Physiotherapy, Volume 83, Issue 1, 26 - 32 Volume 83, Issue 1, p26-32, January 1997.

Gibson, S., Baskerville, D., Berry, A., Black, A., Norris, K., Symeonidou, S. (2017), Including students as co-enquirers: matters of identity, agency, language and labelling in an International participatory research study, International Journal of Educational Research, 81, 108-118.

Gibson, S., Willams-Brown, Z., Shute, J and Westander, M.  (2023), Not hearing, not engaging, not happening: Elusive Inclusive HE, it is time to reconsider sector practices in partnership with disabled student expertise, The journal of Inclusive Practice in Further and Higher Education- (National Association of Disabled Practitioners), Vol 15, No 1, pp 48-74.

May, E. (2024), Critical pedagogy and disability in participatory research: a review. Information and Learning Sciences 5 June 2024; 125 (7-8): 437–455.

Mellifont, D., Smith-Merry, J., Dickinson, H., Llewellyn, G., Clifton, S., Ragen, J., … Williamson, P. (2019). The ableism elephant in the academy: a study examining academia as informed by Australian scholars with lived experience. Disability & Society, 34(7–8), 1180–1199. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2019.1602510.

Nind, Melanie, Rose Wiles, Andrew Bengry-Howell, and Graham Crow. 2013. “Methodological Innovation and Research Ethics: Forces in Tension or Forces in Harmony?.” Qualitative Research 13 (6): 650–667. doi:10.1177/1468794112455042.

Nind, Melanie. 2017. “The Practical Wisdom of Inclusive Research.” Qualitative Research 17 (3): 278–288. doi:10.1177/1468794117708123.

Hall, L. (2014) ‘With’ not ‘about’–emerging paradigms for research in a cross-cultural space, International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 37:4, 376-389.

Oliver, M. (1992) Changing the social relations of research production, Disability, Handicap and Society, 7(2), pp. 101–114.

Sharpe, L., Coates, J. and Mason, C. (2021) ‘Participatory research with young people with special educational needs and disabilities: a reflective account’, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 14(3), pp. 460–473. doi:10.1080/2159676X.2021.1952297.

Watharow, A and Wayland, S. Making Qualitative Research Inclusive: Methodological Insights in Disability Research, International Journal of Qualitative Methods Volume 21: 1–10.

Welikala, T. & Atkin, C. (2014) Student co-inquirers: the challenges and benefits of inclusive research, International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 37:4, 390-406.

Abstract for consideration deadline: 31st March 2026.

Full paper deadline if abstract accepted: 28th February 2027.

Prof. Dr. Suanne Gibson
Prof. Dr. Zeta Williams-Brown
Guest Editors

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