Disability models: An art-based research investigation into knowledge and attitudes of dis/ability in drama therapy

This art-based research explored previous qualitative data about attitudes and perspectives on dis/abilities in drama therapy through the lens of four dis/ability models: the moral model, the medical model, the social model and the disability justice model, via poetic inquiry. In line with working through an emancipatory educational action research framework, the authors engaged with the previous research in a deconstructivist way, both individually and as a group, to derive new meaning from the text. The outcome of this inquiry resulted in four blackout poems, one representing each dis/ability model considered. Support for art-based inquiry of qualitative data is discussed, as well as the importance of disrupting the systems we work within by exploring them via perceptual and kinaesthetic means.