Using Arts-Based Methods in Disability Research

The use of arts-based methods has been increasingly reported in social sciences, education, health and more recently, disability research. Arts-based research methods offer the potential for researchers and research participants to communicate what cannot be captured in words. In this paper we present a range of arts-based methods used in our research with people with disabilities and their supporters. We explore the background of arts-based methods for disability research and then present five case studies of arts-based methods we have used across our research: Found poetry, body mapping, community mapping, 3D artefacts and photovoice. In unpacking these different examples, we highlight the ways in which arts-based methods help to capture the embodied, emotional and overlapping experiences of people with disability or their supporters. Engaging with the arts-based method empowered participants with diverse experiences of disability—from intellectual disability to dementia—to make choices and determine the ways in which they engaged with the research subject and the topic. Despite some logistical, analytical and ethical challenges, arts-based methods offer disability research powerful tools for accessible engagement and knowledge translation.