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A report of some key messages from the study Quality & Capactiy in Inclusive Research with People with Learning Disabilities study for an audience of practitioners in the adult learning disability field

Taking into account the historical understanding that disabled people as individuals and organisations have been excluded from participation and from decision-making in matters that concerns them, issues of voice in research implies empowerment. However, this is not meant to be a gift from those who have power to the ones who do not have such a power, but “it is about people empowering themselves” (Barton, 2007, p.32), it is also about recognising that “it is the oppressed that better knows about oppression, it is in their experience of oppression that resides the knowledge about it” (Freire, 1970, p.27). In this paper I will outline the narrative research I am conducting involving participants with/without learning difficulties, the role of auto/biography and the use of ethnographic fiction as a means of giving voice to the voiceless.

My close relationship with my brother provided me with a strong sense of the struggles of (him) being disabled, in contrast with (me) being so-called "normal".I also present my views on the debate concerning the two major competing models of disability in contrast with my perception of the role of the notions of what being "normal" means, and how these notions affect disabled people. The paper consists of a narrative account in the form of an autobiographical and eye-witnessing analysis supported by some 'visuals' together with a brief discussion on the literature review I am currently carrying out. In this paper I present the development of my perceptions about learning difficulties throughout the course of my life, from my personal experiences as a child – as a sort of 'intuitive advocate' of my brother – to my experience as a research student.

According to Clough (2002, p.8) “narrative is useful only to the extent that it opens up (to its audience) a deeper view of life in familiar contexts: it can make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar”, and this potential to deepen the view of life is one of the characteristics that makes narrative a unique means of making sense of lived life. In this vein, this paper consists of a reflective narrative account of my experience as a research student on the field of inclusive education focused on learning difficulties. The first part of the paper explores the significance of learning difficulties in my personal journey and in my research trajectory and its impact on my choices. In addition I explain the basis of the main question that trigged my curiosity in understanding the effects of inclusive education in the learners’ perceptions of themselves and the others, which was ‘how inclusion could benefit the non-disabled (so-called normal) peers’. In the second part of the paper I discuss how this concern still underpins my research aims and questions, and how it affects my methodological choice of life story and narrative inquiry with a focus in the language in use, particularly the use of metaphors.