Pathways to Participation

This project, conducted in partnership with DanceSyndrome, explores how people with learning disabilities can take an active role in shaping research methods that work best for them. Often, their voices are represented through proxies such as carers or family members, and they are rarely involved directly in decisions about how creative research is designed. This project aims to change that by positioning people with learning disabilities as methodological co-creators.

The project runs a series of creative workshops, each focused on a different modality – photography, visual art, poetry, dance and movement, and singing. Participants use these methods to explore two key questions about quality of life, reflecting on how each approach helps them share their perspectives. By examining how participants engage with these modalities -and how each method shapes, constrains, or enhances the sharing of lived experience -we will generate nuanced insights into the use of creative methods in research. This includes understanding how these approaches can be adapted or blended, and how participants make decisions about working with them.

Pathways to participation ultimately seeks to put people with learning disabilities at the centre of research by prioritising choice, reflection, and creative experimentation. The project aims to strengthen participants’ sense of ownership and agency, while providing researchers with practical insights into methodological decision-making.