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Cited by 95Children's Rights and ParticipationDisability Rights and RepresentationParticipatory Visual Research Methods

Ask us too! Doing participatory research with disabled children in the global south

Wickenden, Mary, Kembhavi-Tam, Gayatri·2014·Childhood
DOI 10.1177/0907568214525426
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Abstract

This article considers how disabled children and young people living in the global south can be included actively in research that explores their lives. While acknowledging the complex, theoretical dilemmas in the overlapping arenas of childhood, disability and international development, the focus here is on methodology. Many researchers argue that children in diverse contexts can be active participants in research and this is increasingly occurring globally. However, this trend towards consulting children themselves is rarely extended to those with disabilities. Arguably, they are accidentally forgotten, assumed to have nothing to say or perceived to be methodologically difficult to include. Thus, disabled children and young people’s perspectives are overlooked, particularly in the global south. We describe two participatory research projects with disabled children and young people in India and Sri Lanka, and focus particularly on practical issues that arose including recruitment, information and consent processes and data collection methods. We argue that considering these issues and making the necessary adaptations to enable children with a variety of impairments to participate meaningfully contributes to enacting both the relevant United Nations conventions, the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Advocating their participation without making appropriate provisions is potentially tokenistic and unethical. It is necessary and possible to include them both in ‘mainstream’ child-focussed research, and specific disability-orientated projects. Involving disabled children in research has dual purposes: inclusion of their perspectives alongside those of other children and highlighting their disability-specific views where relevant. What they say may be surprising to some and challenge assumptions about them. Importantly, this will contribute to reducing their marginalisation from mainstream society.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0907568214525426

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58 of 58 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Child participatory research has more recently been problematized, particularly in relation to the unreflexive use of methods and the tendency to underestimate the power dimensions at play.

    “However, this research approach has more recently been problematized, particularly in relation to the unreflexive use of methods and the tendency to underestimate the power dimensions at play.”

    From Child participatory research methods: Attempts to go ‘deeper’ (2017) · cites this paper as Wickenden and Kembhavi-Tam, 2014

  • Information is understood more easily visually than through narrative.

    “Information is understood more easily visually than through narrative (Wickenden and Kembhavi-Tam, 2014), producing or engaging with images is part of children's everyday lives and is experienced as fun, relaxing and enables the abstract become concrete (Elden, 2012).”

    From Child participatory research methods: Attempts to go ‘deeper’ (2017) · cites this paper as Wickenden and Kembhavi-Tam, 2014

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Authors
Wickenden, M., & Kembhavi-Tam, G.
Affiliations
  • University College London (GB)
  • University College London, UK
ORCID
Wickenden, Mary
Venue
Childhood
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2014-05-09
Volume
21
Issue
3
Pages
400-417
ISSN
  • 0907-5682 (ISSN-L)
  • 1461-7013
DOI
10.1177/0907568214525426
OpenAlex
W2164303170
Cited by
95
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 1
FWCI
16.28
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Childhood (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Children's Rights and Participation
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Participatory Visual Research Methods
Keywords
participatory research, children with disabilities, research ethics, informed consent, research recruitment, data collection methods, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, disability rights, marginalization, Global South, India, Sri Lanka

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