It is often assumed that people with disabilities are a small minority group. However, the latest global estimates are that they make up on average 16% of populations or more in any context (WHO 2022).
Around 10% of children have a disability, the figure rising to about 40% in the elderly, many people acquiring impairments as they age. These figures vary across contexts and are additionally affected by various factors including levels of poverty, presence of conflict and disasters, cultural understandings and ways of counting people who may have this identity. The rights of disabled people are enshrined in the groundbreaking UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) (2006). The treaty emphasises their right to all the ordinary aspects of life others enjoy. However, their citizenship, right to equality, participation in family and community events, access to health, education, employment and social protection are often diminished or denied, sometimes to a shocking degree.
Awareness and research about this large, marginalised group is on the rise, but we still do not have enough good empirical evidence about their concerns and perspectives, especially in contexts of poverty in middle and low-income settings in the global South. There is more work to do.
As disability researchers at IDS, our interests are methodological, theoretical and empirical, and focus on the wellbeing of disabled people living in the global South. Often their concerns are similar to those of other citizens’, but they commonly have exacerbated disadvantages arising out of being excluded, in addition to often living in contexts of precarity.
Much of the research done in international development arenas does not include exploring the lives of disabled children and adults enough or in ways that work for them. We aim to model how this can be done both in disability specific projects and as part of research that is focused on general topics and populations. Often research is not inclusive enough to welcome and include those with disabilities, so knowledge about their lives and situations tends to be missing. Most researchers think it is a specialist topic, not for them to do, and we hope to shift this view so that disabled people’s perspectives are sought more effectively and regularly.
We are interested in developing and promoting methods and tools which include and involve people with disabilities as much as possible and respond to their concerns. We believe that the way that research is done can make it more or less disability-friendly and inclusive. Not all of the adaptations needed are complicated or expensive, but a shift in attitudes is needed, so that disabled people are seen as citizens who can be engaged with like everyone else.
We have produced a ‘how to guide’ to help researchers to be more disability-inclusive. Many of our publications exemplify using these approaches and methodologies and provide unique insights into the lives of disabled children, adults and their families, for example in Kenya and Bangladesh.
Theoretical perspectives
We are social scientists, with interests in the social/emotional/economic and political aspects of disability. We espouse the Social and Human Rights Models of Disability, seeing the disadvantages experienced by people with impairments as generated by society around them, not by the differences they may have. We do not do clinical or epidemiological research, although we may sometimes explore the experiences of people with impairments, especially if they are very marginalised. For example, we are interested in doing research with people with learning, communication, psychosocial and complex impairments, as they are usually particularly left out. We see disability as a relational concept, so people’s experiences are most affected by the way they are responded to by others. Hearing from individuals and understanding their concerns is thus important.
However, we are also interested in looking at the structural (system) issues which affect disabled people as a group at many levels, local, national and international. For example, despite the influence of the UN CRPD many countries still do not have good policies on disability rights, or do not yet enforce them. Disabled people are very often treated as second class citizens and may be denied many of the rights that their neighbours enjoy. Thus we see exploration of the concepts of structural violence, perpetuation of stigma, internalised oppression, epistemological injustice and factors influencing diffusion of disability inclusion to be fruitful areas for further research.
Our work
In the last few years, we have worked on disability specific research projects focusing on a variety of topics and themes across the sectors mentioned above and in a range of countries in the global South, including in South Asia and in West, East and Southern Africa, with an emphasis on using qualitative disability inclusive and participatory methods.
For example, we were involved in two large FCDO (UK Aid) funded projects, working in collaboration with disability focused INGOs and others, led by INGO Sightsavers:
‘Inclusion Works’ (2018 – 2022) focussed on exploring ways of increasing inclusive employment opportunities for disabled people in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. Our contribution amongst other activities was to run Action Learning Groups (ALGs) with some of the disabled people who were enrolled on the programme, in order to hear their experiences of it and their suggestions for improvement and innovation.
The Disability Inclusive Development (DID) programme (2018-2026) works in five countries (Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Nepal and Bangladesh) to trial innovative approaches to inclusive education, health and livelihoods, taking some to scale, as well as investigating the role of stigma and discrimination in disadvantaging disabled people.
Our findings have helped to shed light on which interventions have worked well, why and how, and what would be good to do next, to continue to promote disability inclusive development. Our qualitative approaches enabled us to dig deeper into what was going on and link our findings to theoretical and pre-existing literature.
We have done research about the impact of Covid-19 on disabled people in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria and Uganda and South Africa. Other topics we have explored or are interested in are: disabled people’s experience of faith and religion, stigma, experiences in crises contexts, disability inclusive disaster risk reduction, climate change, gender related topics such as gender-based violence, access to health, disabled children and youth perspectives, identity issues, intersectionality, and ethical issues in disability research.
Disability and Inclusion focused teaching within IDS
We teach MA students studying at IDS about disability, when they are considering aspects of identity and inclusion and also promote disability-aware methodologies during methods sessions. MA students who would like to carry out a disability focused thesis are welcome and well supported to follow these interests.
We have a growing group of PhD students focusing on disability related topics including Disability politics in Uzbekistan, the lives of disabled women in Peru and the experiences of Nigerian mothers who have disabled children. Applicants are welcome to contact us to discuss potential projects.
Future plans
In the future we intend to expand our focus beyond mainly doing disability specific projects on the topics mentioned above and others. We also aim to influence the work of other ‘mainstream’ researchers, investigating a range of topics, where disability may not be seen as central or relevant. We see a disability perspective as being important whoever and whatever is being explored!
