Disability, sibling relationships and everyday life: exploring mundane realities as counter-storytelling

This proposed research engages directly with the key challenge of
disability inclusion in education and society (ECY) through a foregrounding
of the often ignored perspectives of siblings of people with learning
disabilities (CDD) which have huge implications for the health and
well-being of families (CDD). Families and their members are key social
actors involved in promoting the societal inclusion and community
participation of people with learning disabilities; though their expertise and
experiences are often missing from research, policy and practice. This
innovative project centralises the perspectives of siblings through the
deployment of a methodology of counter-storytelling - to generate more
affirmative familial stories that move academic discussion away from
commonplace pathological narratives of disability in families. Recognising
its origins within critical race theory; counter-storytelling will capture and
explore counter stories of experiences that come from growing up in a
disabled family. Using this approach alongside critical disability studies, the
research will excavate celebratory and positive narratives of childhood
disability in the family. While disability will inevitably feature in this, how
siblings themselves reflect on their wider childhoods will undoubtedly
connect with issues including class, location, gender and race/ethnicity.