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Doing Disability Research

Doing Disability Research - book cover

Edited by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer (1997)

The emergence of the social model of disability offers a comprehensive critique of traditional approaches to disability. Parallel calls have been made to break the mould of disability research by adopting an 'emancipatory' approach. This book contains thirteen original contributions from leading figures and newcomers on the key issues and problems in translating disability theory into research practice.

The questions addressed include: breaking the researcher-researched hierarchy; involving disabled people; ownership and control; disability research funding; measuring disability barriers; research and the survivors' movement; narrative approaches; researching sexuality, multiple oppression, abuse and violence, and researching disability in non-European contexts.

This title is now out of print. However, the full text is available electronically on our web site in the Archive section. Please use the following links.

  1. Title, contents pages and information on contributors
  1. Breaking the Mould? An introduction to doing disability research. Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer
  2. Emancipatory Research: Realistic goal or impossible dream? Mike Oliver
  3. Funding for Change: Translating emancipatory disability research from theory to practice. Linda Ward
  4. Researching Disabling Barriers. Gerry Zarb
  5. Psychiatric System Survivors and Emancipatory research: Issues, overlaps and differences. Peter Beresford and Jan Wallcraft
  6. Who's Research ?: A personal audit. Mark Priestley
  7. Researching Disability Employment Policies. Neil Lunt and Patricia Thornton
  8. Making Connections: A narrative study of adult children of parents with learning difficulties. Tim Booth and Wendy Booth
  9. Involving Disabled People in Research: A study of inclusion in environmental activities. Sarah Beazley, Michele Moore and David Benzie
  10. Reflexivity: The dilemmas of researching from the inside. Ayesha Vernon
  11. Researching Disabled Sexuality. Tom Shakespeare
  12. Uncovering the Shape of Violence: A Research Methodology Rooted in the Experience of People with Disabilities. Marcia H.Rioux, Cameron Crawford, Miriam Ticoll, Michael Each
  13. From the Research Notes of a Foreign Devil: Disability research in China Emma Stone

The online text should be considered as a second edition. The page numbers in the electronic versions are different from those in the first print edition. If quoting from these documents, please reference the URL for each chapter.