Disability Under Siege Workshop

Innovative methods for researching disability and COVID-19 in the Global South

This workshop, aimed at academics and practitioners alike, will enable participants to learn about innovative and equitable ways of engaging with disability research in a development context. It will share learning and reflections by a research network of case study projects on the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities in different contexts to get participants thinking about new and different ways of doing research that are equitable, promote co-production approaches, and use creative as well as traditional methods to generate evidence on disability.

While the focus of the workshop is on research, it will be relevant for anyone who gathers and analyses data on disability, including those working outside of academia, for example policymakers, NGOs and development consultants, Disabled People’s Organisations, advocates, activists, and students.

Schedule and how it works

The event will begin with an introduction and brief overview of the work carried out by Disability Under Siege project, which coordinated the case study network. Participants will then join the workshops of their choice. There are two sessions, which each have two workshops running simultaneously. Participants can choose which workshops to attend during the registration process. The event will finish with a short talk from a keynote speaker from the UN Partnership for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) and final reflections on the event.

The timings for the event are as follows:

13:00 – 13:25 Introduction and reflections on Disability Under Siege project

13:30 – 14:50 First workshop session (incl. short break):

• 1A: Partnering with Disabled People’s Organisations

OR

• 1B: Working with people with disabilities as co-researchers

15:00 – 16:20 Second workshop session (incl. short break):

• 2A: Researching disability in a pandemic and other crises

OR

• 2B: Conducting research with children with disabilities

16:30 – 17:00 Keynote speaker - Dr Ola Abu Alghaib (UNPRPD) and conclusions

Workshop session 1A: Partnering with Disabled People’s Organisations

During this workshop, case study research teams will explore how researchers and DPOs have worked together successfully to produce evidence that both enhances academic knowledge and is useful for grassroots organising seeking to affect change.

The event will include a ‘talk show’ style discussion with a panel of activists from Disabled People’s Organisations, who will reflect on the synergies and tensions when working with national and international researchers, particularly in the context of a global pandemic. The session will consider the benefits of collaboration between researchers and grassroots organisations, and will allow time for a brainstorming activity and audience Q&A.

Workshop session 1B: Working with people with disabilities as co-researchers

Peer-research can challenge established research cultures which are often exported from high- to low-income countries. It can allow people with disabilities to frame questions and develop novel methods.

This workshop will include reflections from peer researchers working on experiences of doing research as a person with disability. Topics covered include reflections on training and support needs, accessibility, safeguarding, working with funding and timescale constraints, and how peer researchers can be involved in output production.

The workshop will be hosted by researchers from Ghana, Indonesia, Ukraine, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, and will include whiteboard animations and pre-recorded films by co-researchers with disabilities (with captions). This will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Workshop session 2A: Researching disability during a pandemic and other crises

The focus of this workshop will be on how to research disability in a context of man-made and non-man-made crises. The COVID-19 added just another layer on top for many countries already experiencing conflict, violence, corruption, and poverty, all of which are likely to disproportionately impact on people with disabilities.

The workshop will include two presentations on the experiences of local researchers in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) and South Africa, and the challenges and opportunities of carrying out research with persons with disabilities under these circumstances. There will be opportunity for discussion following each case studies, with participants asked to think about how such difficult circumstances can be navigated and how research needs to adaptive and flexible.

Workshop session 2B: Conducting research with children with disabilities

This workshop will explore innovative methods of interacting with children with disabilities, and present learning points and experience of two case study projects that worked with children with disabilities.

The highlight of the session will be a 15-minute interactive demonstration of the “Heartbeat Method” a theatre-based method during which a director and Peruvian theatre group will engage in a live performance with two families in with autistic children in Peru.

There will be short video presentations of the case study projects and their work in Nepal and Peru, followed by a conversation with reflections on challenges and opportunities in working with children with disabilities, followed by an audience Q&A.

Further information and accessibility

The event will take place on Zoom and links will be sent to registrants via email. All sessions will be recorded.

Live captions will be available for all sessions and regular break will be built into each session throughout the afternoon. We are committed to ensuring this event is accessible as possible, so please let us know about any other access requirements during the booking process or get in touch with any queries on disabilityundersiege@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

About the organisers

The workshop is run by the GCRF Network+, Disability Under Siege project and a network of 8 case studies into the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities in different LMIC contexts:

• Building back better: Disability-inclusive health as a legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe (led by Dr Hannah Kuper, LSHTM)
• Creating recovery: a case-study of how autistic people, families, health professionals & artists in Peru can build inclusive learning through COVID-19 (led by Professor Paul Heritage, Queen Mary University of London)
• A Comparative Case Study on the Impacts of COVID-19 on Persons with Disabilities in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine (led by Professor Dina Kiwan, University of Birmingham)
• The impact of COVID-19 on people living with psychosocial disabilities in Ghana and Indonesia and priorities for inclusive recovery (led by Dr Ursula Read, King’s College London)
• The impacts of COVID-19 on Persons with Disabilities in Ukraine (with a particular focus on internally displaced Persons with Disabilities) (led by Dr Kiril Sharapov, Edinburgh Napier University)
• Implementing participatory-action research to explore the impact of COVID on war-affected disabled populations, including ex-child soldiers, in Uganda (led by Dr Rachel Murray, University of Bristol)
• Participatory Action Research with Disabled Adolescents in Nepal (PARDAN) to develop methods and materials to understand their experience of COVID-19 (led by Dr Joanna Morrison, University College London)
• Socio-economic, wellbeing and human rights related experiences of people with disabilities in Covid-19 times in South Africa (Dr Mary Wickenden, Institute of Development Studies)

The GCRF Network+, Disability Under Siege and case study projects have been funded by UK Research and Innovation as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund.