The politics of making disability visible in community-led urban research

Research in informal settlements tends to overlook or co-opt the voices of disabled people. There is a need to develop methods that engage with the specific lived experiences and priorities of disabled residents, as well as spaces to include the participation of disabled residents in the wider decision-making process of low-income communities. 

This event explores the different strategies used by the AT2030 research project to engage with disabled people, AT users and non-disabled residents in urban low-income communities in Freetown and Banjarmasin, with the aim of identifying shared aspirations for life outcomes. The event engages with some of the tensions of making disability more ‘visible’ in action-research, at the same time as making it visible in ways that challenge, rather than reinforce stigma. It also reflect on the role in research in creating the space for validating disability as a political identity.  
 

The presentations will be led by the partner organization that have been conducting the research: Kota Kita and Kaki Kota (Indonesia), SLURC and Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor (Sierra Leone) and Leonard Cheshire (UK). 

Speakers

Nina Asterina, Programme Manager Kota Kita (Indonesia)

Eka Ramadhini, Project Manager Kaki Kota (Indonesia)

Yirah Conteh, Head of Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor (Sierra Leone)

Hawanatu Bangura, Field Research, SLURC (Sierra Leone)

Mark Carew, Senior Researcher, Leonard Cheshire (UK)

Julian Walker, Principal Investigator AT2030, UCL (UK)

Ignacia Ossul-Vermehren, Lead Research Fellow AT2030, UCL (UK)

Image: Participant from Thompson Bay's community (Freetown, Sierra Leone) showing researchers how she uses transport in the city. Photo credit: Angus Stewart