The Official Journal of the British Institute of Learning Disabilities for a change in the laws concerning sexuality and learning disability in the Republic of Ireland.

Accessible Summary The Inclusive Research Network (IRN) is a group of researchers who do projects that matter to people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland. This paper is about a project we did to learn what it is like for people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland to move from one house to another. We talked to 35 people who moved house. Some people chose where to move but others had no choice. Feeling safe made them happier in their new home. One third of the people we spoke to had no choice about where they live and who they live with. Having these choices is their right under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. People with intellectual disabilities need supporters who listen and respect them. Abstract BackgroundSupporting people with intellectual disabilities to live well in communities they choose is deinstitutionalisation's central aim and endorsed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN, 2006). This study focused on the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland when moving home using an inclusive research approach. MethodThis inclusive research project employed a qualitative approach. Participants included 19 men and 16 women (total n = 35) with ages ranging from 22 to 77 years. Structured interviews attended to the experience of moving home and the supports accessed during and after the transition to community living. ResultsThematic analysis yielded four themes: “expressing choice” in the moving process; “feeling connected or isolated when moving”; “accessing supports during and after the move”; and finally, participants' reflections on “experiencing vulnerability and feeling safe” while resettling. ConclusionsThis is the first study about people with intellectual disabilities moving home to be collaboratively designed and completed by an inclusive research team. Although much is understood about the long‐term benefits of engaging in meaningful choices about housing and supports, concerns remain about the extent to which the will and preferences of people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland are respected when moving home.

Inclusive research has gained momentum internationally. However important critiques of this approach query whether inclusive research reinforces perceptions of deficit and contribute to exclusionary practices. This paper presents a reflection on the practices within an inclusive research group over the past decade, with a focus on decision making and support. The authors used thematic analysis to critically review minutes, workshop presentations and research reports. The findings indicate a shift in how the group works together; moving away from being guided by university supporters in the early years towards increased participation in decision making and ownership of the group's agenda by self-advocates over time although balanced collaboration across all members continues to be challenging. The article explains how the inclusive approach used by the group enabled self-advocates to not only conduct research, but to also critically review their own work. Points of interest• Research done together with people with learning disabilities, inclusive research, has become known worldwide. Some people wonder if teams that say they are inclusive are not really treating people as equal partners.• Our group wanted to reply to these key issues as we think about how we work together. • To do this, we looked at our meeting notes and agendas, reports, and training presentations over the past ten years. We looked at how we make decisions and the support we get. The group found that self-advocates and supporters now work as full partners. University supporters made decisions before. Now self-advocates decide the research topics, methods, and the report.

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