Participatory & Emancipatory Approaches in Disability Research. Possible allies for supporting active citizenship, civil rights and actions of social innovation

This paper addresses the debate surrounding the participatory & emancipatory approach in disability research. Its purpose is to answer three research questions related to what extent the participatory approach to research can encourage an active citizenship paradigm for the involvement of disabled people, to what extent emancipation through research can contribute to the affirmation of a civil rights model of disability and to what extent is it possible to consider these approaches as tools that can support the design and implementation of socially innovative actions. The paper is mainly inspired by academic literature and a review of international documents, assuming a disability perspective. It is divided into three main sections. The first explores the participatory approach applied to research as an important component for achieving empowerment and contributing to definition of an active citizenship paradigm to be applied to disability field. The second presents the emancipatory approach to research suggesting possible connections with a civil rights model of disability. The final section tries to assume that the participatory & emancipatory approach to research is a process, rather than an outcome addressed to find a sort of common denominator for the design, prototypisation and implementation of practices of social innovation.