Empowering disabled voices: Developing an inclusive and intersectional research toolkit with people with disability

Co-Leads: Stefanie Dimov, Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Dr Tessa Saunders, Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Despite growing recognition that lived experience (LE) should inform disability research, universities lack practical, evidence-based resources to make this happen well. Existing toolkits tend to overlook intersectionality, failing to reflect the experiences of Indigenous people with disability, migrants, LGBTQIA+ communities, and those in regional or remote areas. Without adequate resources and structures, LE involvement can cause harm rather than foster genuine inclusion.

This seed project will adapt and expand an existing youth-focused inclusive research toolkit, developed through the Research Alliance for Youth Disability and Mental Health, so that it works across diverse disability communities, research contexts, and intersecting identities. Through two workshops with disabled people from diverse backgrounds and one workshop with University of Melbourne staff, the team will identify what the current toolkit does well, where it falls short, and what needs strengthening. The refined toolkit will be grounded in lived experience and shaped by how disability intersects with culture, gender, sexuality, and geography.

The aim is to build the University of Melbourne's capacity for inclusive, intersectional research practice and to lay the groundwork for a larger future project to co-develop a fully accessible toolkit, supported by category one and two funding (such as ARC Discovery or NDRP).