A call to give a voice to people with intellectual disabilities in Africa through inclusive research

African Journal of Disability

 
 
Field Value
 
Title A call to give a voice to people with intellectual disabilities in Africa through inclusive research
 
Creator Kahonde, Callista K.
 
Subject Disability Studies intellectual disabilities; inclusive research; Africa; inclusion; human rights.
Description Research looking into the day-to-day lives of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) is on the increase in Africa. However, not enough is being done to include people with ID as active contributors to this research through inclusive approaches. Inclusive research empowers people with ID as they have the agency and autonomy to speak for themselves and they are given an active voice in the research process and outcomes. This leads to services that cater for what matters to people with ID themselves as opposed to having their needs defined by other people. The common myths and misconceptions attached to ID in Africa, which increase stigma towards people affected by this type of disability can be abated by their visibility in research and evidence of their ability to express themselves. This article makes a call to researchers on the African continent to include people with ID in research as active contributors to the research and not simply as research subjects or respondents. A background is given of global developments that have occurred in inclusive research based on the literature and the author’s personal experience, which African researchers can learn from while taking cognizance of the specific needs of their own contexts. This is followed by highlighting the gaps in Africa. The article ends with a discussion of possible reasons for a lack of inclusive research in Africa and suggestions and recommendations to address this gap.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2023-04-25
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajod.v12i0.1127
 
Source African Journal of Disability; Vol 12 (2023); 5 pages 2226-7220 2223-9170
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1127/2341 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1127/2342 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1127/2343 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1127/2344
 
Coverage Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Callista K. Kahonde https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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