Deafening silences : researching with disabled children and young people

• Main Author: Boggis, Alison
• Published: University of Essex 2012
• Subjects: 305.908083
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573734

This thesis is first and foremost about voices - voices that are young and voices that are disabled. Specifically it is about the ways in which voices are simultaneously facilitated and inhibited. It is not about impairment or medical issues. Based on in-depth, qualitative research with children and young people who have little or no voice and who use voice prosthetics in the form of high tech Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems (AACS), this thesis is built upon the moral perspective of respect for the role and status of children. It promotes their entitlement to being considered as persons of value and with rights. The study offered disabled children and young people an opportunity to participate in research and gave them a platform from which to project their voices. The data highlighted the ways in which disabled children and young people negotiated external structures of control to change their social positions. Specific issues that arose during the research process with regards to gaining access to disabled children, seeking their informed consent and the challenges that relate to interviewing inarticulate participants are outlined within the thesis 5 and considered particularly relevant to researchers who seek to include disabled children in qualitative research. Whilst perceived notions of dependency and incompetence emerged as major issues that inhibited disabled children and young people's voices, this thesis challenges the concept of the 'disabled' child by highlighting the ways in which meanings and values were contested by the young participants themselves. The findings demonstrate that it is increasingly important to recognize the diversity of voices within childhood.