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Partnerships for disability research in Africa: Lessons learned in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

ALDERSEY, Heather
WENDA, Delphine Assumani
2015

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Issues concerning individuals with disabilities are under-researched in Africa, and persons with disabilities remain some of the most highly disadvantaged groups. In an increasing era of globalization, partnerships across borders and boundaries to conduct disability research is inevitable. Yet, such partnerships might be complicated by issues such as unequal power dynamics, poverty, and cultural misunderstandings, among others. In this article, the authors reflect upon their experience partnering for disability research across cultures, with one author being a Congolese person with a disability and the other being a Canadian ally. They discuss the nature of their research relationship, challenges they faced while conducting a seven-month study of personhood and support for people with intellectual disabilities in Kinshasa, and how they addressed these challenges. They also outline lessons learned from this partnership and how their past experience collaborating for disability research will shape their future endeavours.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

2015

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Articles include:

  • Typhoon Haiyan One Year On: Disability, Poverty and Participation in the Philippines
  • Beneath the rhetoric: Policy to reduce the mental health treatment gap in Africa
  • Working within the tensions of disability and education in post-colonial Kenya: Toward a praxis of critical disability studies
  • How disability studies and ecofeminist approaches shape research: exploring small-scale farmer perceptions of banana cultivation in the Lake Victoria region, Uganda
  • Partnerships for Disability Research in Africa: Lessons Learned in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Representation, Access and Contestation: Facebook and Vision Impairment in Jordan, India, and Peru

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