Reason, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0536-4236, Acton, Kelsie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2041-9493 and Foulds, Daniel (2025) Cognitive Accessibility, Ethics and Rights in Research. Performance Matters. (In Press)

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Abstract

The paper discusses cognitive accessibility, ethics, and rights in research in the context of working with artists with learning disabilities and autism. It critiques traditional research ethics processes, which often adopt a deficit model and excludes these individuals from active participation in the research process. The authors emphasize the importance of creating accessible research practices that are based on rights, rather than vulnerability, and that involve people with learning disabilities as co-researchers.
The paper focuses on the I’m Me project, which involves seven partner arts organisations across the UK and aims to use creative and inclusive methods to explore identity, representation, and voice with artists with learning disabilities and autism.
The authors argue that access should be a responsive, emergent process and present a rights-based approach to informed consent, emphasizing clarity, participation, and personal agency. Methods such as plain language, visual aids, and videos are used to ensure that information is accessible. The paper explores key challenges relating to time and complexity, particularly in terms of exploring with artists decisions regarding anonymity and recognition. Through careful attention to accessible and inclusive methods the authors argue it is possible to enable research which is both ethical and liberatory.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general > NX456.5.P38 Performance Art
School/Department:	School of the Arts
Institutes:	Institute for Social Justice
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/12116

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