Accessible reporting of participatory research

This workshop was run by Alun Morgan, lecturerin Health and Social Care at the Open University.

Accessible reporting This workshop focused on the need in participatory research to ensure that the outputs and reporting of any project activity is appropriate and understandable to the intended audience and project participants. Traditionally the reporting of research is often framed in formal academic language and reporting structures. However, when engaging with community groups and other stakeholders, such conceptual models may be confusing or appear distant and to discount or to exclude the participants’ contributions.  This workshop presented an example of the CHANGE organisation in Leeds in the UK, where young people with moderate learning difficulties (mental handicap) were engaged as researchers to examine the issue of the education and development of making personal and sexual relationships between young adults with learning disabilities. An example of an accessible report of this project in Leeds, which included the use of drama, was presented by the workshop leader, and workshop participants reflected on the issue of the relevance and opportunities for making the outcomes of participatory video research more accessible. The report can be accessed at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/change/final%20report%20read%20copy.pdf  The Dabas workshop participants’ views were recorded as follows:
Affordances	Requirements	Notes
·         Strengthens validity of research findings – beyond respondent validation ·         Subverts institutions ‘holding’ power of knowledge ·         Allows for real participatory research ·         Simple and understandable way of clarifying information ·         Easily understandable feedback, allows trust and good relationships between researchers and locals ·         Dissemination of results to participants ·         Opportunity6 for participants to feedback re project results ·         Critical approach	·         Understanding of audience needs ·         Creativity ·         True empathy for the participants and the role of the research ·         Needing to know exactly who your audience is. ·         Need to make sure that you match the level and the audience otherwise you could offend. ·         Different outputs for different audiences ·         Important to find the appropriate difficulty level (understandable and not too simple for the stakeholders)	·         360-degree participation – missing link – feedback loop – even including participants in the design process. ·         Suggest getting feedback from participants re the accessibility of the report – pilot? ·         Build in feedback on how useful/good your feedback reporting was?! ·         Ethical dilemma of omission - professional/ ethical /boundaries. ·         You have to choose the target group carefully. ·         Needs to be designed from early in the process. ·