NAVIGATING STIGMA · Navigating Stigma: People with Intellectual Disability Creating Inclusive Communities

Creating inclusive communities that include people with intellectual disabilities is the central aim of this proposal, one that aligns with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. In order to promote social inclusion, we must develop policies and practices that first acknowledge and then disrupt the influence of stigma in the lives of people with disabilities. There are three interconnected strands of this programme of research that will co-occur over the four years of the CIG. The first is designed to gather the breadth of experiences of people with disabilities as they navigate stigma in their lives. This will be accomplished through research projects completed by postgraduate students under the supervision of the Principal Investigator. The second strand, the centrepiece of this proposal, narrows the focus to provide in-depth analysis of experiences of people with intellectual disabilities as they transition from institutions into community living in 3 international ethnographic case studies. The three sites include Nova Scotia, Canada, Ireland (Limerick), and the UK (Manchester). The third strand will build the research capacity within the community of people with intellectual disabilities initially in Ireland and then internationally. in combination, these three strands of research will enable the Principal Investigator to become part of an EU based international research network that attends to how policies shape the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, while simultaneously enabling people with intellectual disabilities to in turn inform the development of future polices.