LTE|Why We Need a Diversity of Disabled Voices in Research Sincerely,

Though quantitative research reveals the who and the what, without the context of why and how that qualitative research provides, the “hard” facts can be misleading and misused. In an interview with a sociology professor at JMU Kerry Dobransky, he noted how “the history of research and policy language … is in many ways a story of quantification” and sees the potential of incorporating community driven research within sociological and more broadly in qualitative studies to challenge and explode myths that address the positionality of the researcher as outsider and blindspots and biases that may exist.

In our academic studies, we are starting to see how research is something we have come to rely on to understand ourselves, the living, physical world which we inhabit, and the social realities and institutions which we mutually construct. Research has a direct and substantial impact on policy and funding priorities, it provides a framework for what is generally accepted as true and real. Research also

As the UN’s press release, “New Eugenics: UN Disability Expert Warns against ‘Ableism’ in Medical Practice,” emphasized, ableism is a causal factor for the realities the disability community face during the COVID pandemic if “the life experiences of people with disabilities continue to be undervalued, no progress will be made” concluding that “what we need is a profound cultural transformation on the way society relates to the difference. That is a commitment to embrace disability as a positive aspect of human diversity (and that) states must combat all forms of discrimination based on disability.” A key way of achieving this equity is a diversity of disabled voices from all intersectional experiences in research. The solutions are out there, we just have to educate ourselves, become critical consumers of research, do our inner work and come together in solidarity and action.