When Participatory Approaches Are Inaccessible: Creating Space for Both Individual and Group Engagement

• In Event: Critical Qualitative Research, Disability, and Community: Seeking a Disability Justice Framework for Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Over the last few decades, there has been a growing interested in participatory visual media, such as photography, film, and drawing. Taken up in collaborative settings, creative forms of expression serve as a mode of inquiry, a form of meaning-making, and a way of knowing. When working alongside activists and community members in the disability sector, collaborative-based approaches are encouraged due to the innate inclusivity they provide. Participatory approaches espouse the strengths and benefits associated with group-based methodologies. The process of sharing our knowledge and connecting with others can result in validation, emancipation, and transformative experiences. Self and group empowerment, critical consciousness and the cycles of dialogue, reflection, and action are well documented in the literature, and are considered core elements of participatory action research. Indeed, when critical theories guide participatory-based research, the process informs praxis that strives for inclusivity, agency and choice while honoring tacit knowledge.
For the last 10 years, my work has predominantly involved the application of arts-based media in participatory action research studies working alongside disabled activists. The results of our work have influenced legislation changes, informed policy around programming and services, and raising awareness about the challenges and injustices disabled persons must navigate on a daily basis.
However, what happens when group participation become inaccessible? When the act of coming together as a group represents an overwhelming idea for individuals keen to participate, yet unclear how to do so when participation requires group engagement. Other barriers may include the built environment – including transportation – that compound the challenges of coming together and sharing our experiences? What does access mean in these contexts, and how can researchers who espouse participatory practices honor the needs and desires by participants while guided by a participatory-based research design?
With consideration to the social, political, and physical contexts, this paper explores opening up participatory informed research that creates space for individual engagement. It begins with the description of participatory action research, and its historical role and growing importance in critical disability research. What follows is an exemplar of a two-year participatory action research study involving a group of activists in the disability community that explored the topic of transportation as a social determinant of health using photography and storytelling. The findings were subsequently shared online and though community exhibits. While initially designed as a group-based format, the process evolved to one-to-one settings, guided by the needs of participants. The research design, with a particular focus on the collaborative process and forms of engagement, are described, along with recommendations and future considerations.

Author

• Kathleen Caroline Sitter, University of Calgary