A Platform for Change? Inclusive research about 'choice and control'

Participation, voice and control have long been central concerns in the research at Norah Fry. This paper focuses on inclusive research relating to choice and control, as experienced by people with learning disabilities who use personal budgets and direct payments, and aims to question how the process of inclusive research can be linked to wider outcomes. The paper gives a brief overview of several studies carried out by Norah Fry Research Centre, which were in partnership with self-advocacy groups and employed people with learning disabilities, between 1999 and 2007. Both in research and in everyday life, we question individual notions of ‘choice and control’, showing how relational autonomy was at the heart, both of the process of the inclusive research and also of the outcomes and findings. The discussion considers how the impact of inclusive research designs can be at policy, practice and ‘direct’ user level, and is often achieved by people with learning disabilities having a voice at the dissemination stage.