Imagining new accessible worlds

Cripping the ethics of disability arts research

  • Andrea LaMarre

  • Carla Rice

  • Roxanne Mykitiuk

The use of multimedia story-making and narrative-based drama in disability research raises conventional ethical issues of informed consent, anonymity, and confidentiality. In this chapter, we explore unique issues that arise when working with non-normatively embodied/enminded participants in a collaborative way, using arts-based mediums that transgress boundaries of anonymity and privacy, and call for difference-tailored consent processes. We identify unique ethical issues/practices arising out of our research with Re•Vision, a research-creation centre that uses the power of the arts to dismantle stereotypical understandings of mind-body difference that create barriers to healthcare. Drawing on Re•Vision’s arts research, we map ethical conditions under which participants/collaborators/artists create their stories, and how curation of multimedia stories and drama gives rise to an ethics of voice and bearing witness.

Rice, C., LaMarre, A, & Mykitiuk, R. (2018). Cripping the ethics of disability arts research. In C. I. Macleod, J. Marx, P. Mnyaka, & G. J. Treharne (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of ethics in critical research (pp 257–272). Palgrave.