Co-Producing access(ible) Knowledge

Methodological Reflections on a Community-Based Participatory Research

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2411747
AutoresShixin Huang (0000-0001-9240-5045), Jia He (0009-0001-5362-2554), Jia Jun He, Zhengqiang Jiang, Jiang Zheng-Qiang
Año2024
Volumen23
Fecha de publicación2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Qualitative Methods (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1609-4069 • E-ISSN: 1609-4069
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/16094069241257947
OpenAlexW4398238282
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas47

This paper is a methodological reflection on a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that used the photovoice method to unravel the educational experiences of disabled college students in China's higher education institutions. Although CBPR endeavors to nurture equitable community engagement in research processes, there are practical challenges to address the full participation of people with divergent disabilities and access needs. Drawing upon the critical disability studies literature, and particularly upon the activist scholarship of disability justice that revolves around interdependency, collective access, and cross-disability solidarity, we provide an open discussion on the complexities, tensions, and challenges of envisioning and creating access for participants with different disabilities in a visuality-centered CBPR. Our findings suggest that access creation in CBPR should go beyond the checklist style of accommodation and instead be approached as relational, dynamic, and iterative processes that require ongoing reflection, (re)learning, and negotiation among researchers and participants. We implemented nonvisual photography to adapt to the visuality-centered bias in the photovoice method. Nonvisual photography empowered participants with visual disabilities to evoke multiple sensorialities in their photo-taking, displaying, and interpretation. Moreover, the participants without visual disabilities also learned and practiced collective access and interdependency through co-transforming the CBPR into an accessible space for all. The heterogeneity among participants with divergent disabilities and access needs challenged CBPR's envisioning of a unified community with recognized commonalities. The inclusion of participants across disability groups created an opportunity for all participants to draw meaning from the ableist social and political circumstances that forged them as a community and to develop a sense of belonging and bonding in and through CBPR. In that light, disability justice and access should be reimagined and incorporated into CBPR

Citizen journalism · Community-based participatory research · Engineering ethics · Knowledge management · Participatory action research · Sociology · World Wide Web · Anthropology · Children's Rights and Participation · Computer Science · Engineering · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Participatory Visual Research Methods