“Where are we going today?” Using GoPros to research the inclusive city with wheelchair co-researchers

Conference presentation at the Annual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society (26-30 Aug) in Birmingham, UK.

Abstract
In this presentation, we draw on data collected as part of a broader participatory research project ‘Everyday Geographies of Being and Becoming Disabled’. The project explores lived experiences of disabilities in urban spaces, and how physical, socio-cultural, affective, economic and policy dimensions affect these everyday experiences.

A central part of this project is the involvement of people with disabilities as co-researchers throughout all phases of the research. Specifically, we work with (electric) wheelchair users who also experience muscle spasm. Some do not have the ability to produce sound using one’s larynx and communicate with speech assistance instead. As a result, in this project the research team experimented with data collection (and knowledge sharing) methods that relied less on the verbal, such as using photos and videos, as well as smartphone based mapping.

In this presentation, we discuss our experiences using GoPro cameras to record travel routes from our wheelchair-researchers residence to various locations in the city. We travelled ‘on foot’ using sidewalks, bike paths and streets as well as recorded travel by public transportation. The GoPro footage was coded using categories that captured locations and obstacles. As a part of our sense-making, ‘short stories’ were created and reviewed together with the co-researchers. The point of view nature of the footage allowed the co-researchers to re-experience specific moments alongside the researchers to collaboratively reflect on barriers and future opportunities. In re-visiting certain segments, we highlight some of the challenges and impacts of doing creative research.