1. Dr Jim Elder-Woodward OBE Chair, Glasgow centre for inclusive living
Coproducing Research with Disabled People: Disability research into independent living and learning
Dr Jim Elder-Woodward OBE
Chair, Glasgow centre for inclusive living
Good Morning
As I have a speech defect I shall use the PowerPoint to act as my sub-titles

2. Taking a back-step
Why ‘emancipatory’ co-researching between the academic and ‘subject’ is so important
Prof Rummery has given you some background to the DRILL Programme.
She has also described the collaborative nature of our research into finding what kind of sustainable social care system would look like.
The outputs of this research will enable one of the Independent Living Movement’s key objectives – a social care system which would support the full economic, and social citizenship of disabled people: and how to fund it.
And, as such, this research meets the criteria of what is called: ‘Emancipatory’ Research.
But first, I shall take a back-step to look at why such emancipatory co-researching between the academic and their subject is so important

3. disability as ‘other’
“.. the overwhelming majority of scholarship on disability either utilises or implies the third person plural: ‘they’ do this, ‘they’ are like that, ‘they’ need such and such. This contributes to the objectification of disabled people and contributes to their experience of alienation.”
Simi Linton (1998) “Disability studies / not disability studies” Disability and Society, 13(4) pp
Right back to the 1990’s disabled sociologists had been arguing that sociological studies viewed disability and disabled people as ‘other’ . In fact, the disabled sociologist Simi Linton states:
“.. the overwhelming majority of scholarship on disability either utilises or implies the third person plural: ‘they’ do this, ‘they’ are like that, ‘they’ need such and such. This contributes to the objectification of disabled people and contributes to their experience of alienation.”

4. The ‘medical model’
Until the mid 20th century, the causal relationship between disability and impairment was the dominant ideology (the Medical Model)
Researchers assumed that the problems faced by disabled people were due to their impairment
e.g. “What is wrong with you?
“Does your disability make it difficult for you to travel by bus?
This dominance of the able-bodied (medical / sociological)‘expert’ ‘doing research’ on ‘the disabled’ has typified research during this period
Until the mid 20th century, the causal relationship between disability and impairment was the dominant ideology (the Medical Model)
Researchers assumed that the problems faced by disabled people were due to their impairment
e.g. “What is wrong with you?
“Does your disability make it difficult for you to travel by bus?
This dominance of the able-bodied (medical / sociological)‘expert’ ‘doing research’ on ‘the disabled’ has typified research during this period
Please refer to your handout

5. The social production of disability
Industrial societies have produced disability
First; as a medical problem requiring medical intervention and
Second; as a social problem requiring social provision.
Research has operated within these frameworks and sought to classify, clarify, map and measure their dimensions
Mike Oliver (1992) Changing the Social Relations of Research Production? Disability, Handicap & Society, 7:2,
Mike Oliver argues:
In the past 100 years or so, industrial societies have produced disability
- first as a medical problem requiring medical intervention and
- second as a social problem requiring social provision.
Research, on the whole, has operated within these frameworks and sought to classify, clarify, map and measure their dimensions

6. The social production of disability (Con’t)
The process of research production has been alienating both for disabled people and for researchers themselves.
Neither positivist nor interpretive paradigms are immune from the characterization of research as alienation,
The only way to produce un-alienated research is to change the social relations of research production.
This change will require the development of an emancipatory research paradigm.
Mike Oliver (1992) Changing the Social Relations of Research Production? Disability, Handicap & Society, 7:2,
Mike Oliver states: the process of research production has been alienating both for disabled people and for researchers themselves.
Neither positivist nor interpretive paradigms are immune from the characterization of research as alienation,
and hence it is suggested that the only way to produce un-alienated research is to change the social relations of research production.
This change will require the development of an emancipatory research paradigm.

7. So, what is ‘emancipatory research?
Disability studies research might be conceived as a continuum …
Knowledge research Shared Knowledge Co-Produced Research
e.g. an academic challenges e.g. researchers work with a self-advocacy e.g. disabled people’s organisations work
the constitution of normalcy group to develop inclusive research practices with researchers to measure and eradicate disablism
Non-
participatory Participatory Emancipatory
Research-led, university-based, Researcher invites participants into the Co-researchers co-producing knowledge
generating social theory for those research, breaking traditional boundaries and practice
in the academic field
Dan Goodley (2017) Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (2nd edition) Sage, London, pp 29
So what constitutes Emancipatory Research
Dan Goodley has drawn up this table differentiating between ‘Non-Participatory’ ‘Participatory’ and ‘Emancipatory’ Research
This table is in your handout alongside another, based on a paper by Swain and French
Research is basically the action of seeking out knowledge.
This can be done in three ways
Non-Participatory research is done by an individual academic based at a university, but not always, who generates or challenges social theory
Participatory research seeks shared knowledge with other partners, beyond traditional boundaries, and sharing the accrued knowledge between them
But emancipatory research involves researchers and ‘subjects’ working in equal partnership, co-producing knowledge and practice

8. Emancipatory research is also…
That which gives the subjects choices to develop their own empowerment strategies.
Mike Oliver, (1997) “Emancipatory research: Realistic goal or impossible dream”; Doing Disability Research, ed Colin Barnes and Geoff Mercer, The Disability Press, Leeds
Mike Oliver therefore argued that emancipatory research also gives the subjects choices to develop their own empowerment strategies

9. In terms of the DRILL STUDY; its Core emancipatory research principles will be to …
Remain accountable to disabled people
Adopt a holistic approach grounded in the social model of disability
Remain transparent and open to scrutiny in terms of starting assumptions, methodology and the interests of researchers
Use a mixed methodology which pays due regard to the complexity of the lived experience of disabled people and other participants
Ensure that the interpretation of disabled people's input is validated by them
Make a tangible contribution to addressing a key issue that is important to disabled people themselves
Increase the understanding, awareness and capacity of disabled people and their organisations.
In terms of the DRILL STUDY; its Core emancipatory research principles will be to …
Remain accountable to disabled people
Adopt a holistic approach grounded in the social model of disability
Remain transparent and open to scrutiny in terms of starting assumptions, methodology and the interests of researchers
Use a mixed methodology which pays due regard to the complexity of the lived experience of disabled people and other participants
Ensure that the interpretation of disabled people's input is validated by them
Make a tangible contribution to addressing a key issue that is important to disabled people themselves
Increase the understanding, awareness and capacity of disabled people and their organisations.

10. In summary: this means
The DRILL research will provide such data, learning and choices to empower the movement’s arguments to have a sustainable social care system which promotes and sustains social citizenship, in terms of full and equal participation in the economic, social and cultural life of society (
Thank you
In Summary: we therefore believe the DRILL research will provide such data, learning and choices to empower the movement’s arguments to have a sustainable social care system which promotes and sustains social citizenship, in terms of full and equal participation in the economic, social and cultural life of society
Thank you