Abstract

People with disabilities are often excluded from research, which may be exacerbated during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This article provides an overview of key challenges, opportunities, and strategies for conducting disability-inclusive research during the pandemic, drawing on the experience of research teams working across ten countries on disability-focused studies. It covers adaptations that are relevant across the project lifecycle, including maintaining ethical standards and safeguarding; enabling active participation of people with disabilities; adapting remote research data collection tools and methods to meet accessibility, feasibility, and acceptability requirements; and promoting inclusive and effective analysis and dissemination. While this article is focused on adaptations during the pandemic, it is highly likely that the issues and strategies highlighted here will be relevant going forward, either in similar crises or as the world continues to move towards greater digital communication and connectedness.

Rights

This is an Open Access article distributed for non-commercial purposes under the terms of the Open Government Licence 3.0 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/), which permits use, copying, publication, distribution and adaptation, provided the original authors and source are credited and the work is not used for commercial purposes.

Cite as

Banks, L., Willan, S., Inglis-Jassiem, G., Dunkle, K., Ganle, J., Shakespeare, T., Shahpar Khan, R., Hameed, S., Machisa, M., Watson, N., Carpenter, B., Smythe, T., Mthethwa, N., Seketi, Q., Wilbur, J., Nzuza, A., İlkkurşun, Z., Tetali, S., Huq, L., Clyde, A. & Hanass-Hancock, J. 2022, 'Adapting disability research methods and practices during the Covid-19 pandemic: experiences from the field', IDS Bulletin, 53(3), pp. 129-152. https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2022.130

Downloadable citations

Download HTML citationHTML Download BIB citationBIB Download RIS citationRIS
Last updated: 03 September 2022
Was this page helpful?