Establishing a Cooperative Inquiry Group for People with Intellectual Disabilities to Explore Relationships and Sexuality in their Lives.

Abstract

Previous research has shown that people with intellectual disabilities face many barriers concerning their sexual citizenship. This is due to others perceiving them as vulnerable and wanting to protect them, rooted in ingrained societal attitudes. As a result, people with intellectual disabilities cannot live the life they want. However, there is a gap in the literature from an Irish context that explores the perspectives and lived experiences of people with intellectual disabilities. We set up a cooperative-inquiry group, a form of action research, where the researchers with intellectual disabilities in this study were involved in every decision and stage, from design, to data generation, to analysis, to sharing the findings. The theoretical lens used in this study was the concept of sexual citizenship (also known as intimate citizenship), which uncovered that the researchers were denied their sexual citizenship. We were engaged in cycles of learning, reflection, and action. After many shared barriers were identified with the research team, we carried out several actions including educating ourselves on sexual health education and educating the public on the sexual citizenship rights of people with intellectual disabilities. This study was transformative to the researchers, and we propose other researchers consider this way of working on disability research, where participants can instead be researchers and lead studies and actions that are important to them. We hope this study will lead the way and move society forward in changing societal attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities, so they have their rights to sexual citizenship fulfilled.