Participatory and Inclusive Approaches to Disability Program Evaluation

This article, written by Sally Robinson, Karen R. Fisher & Robert Strike, examines why evaluations of disability programs rarely use inclusive approaches that engage people with cognitive disabilities. The paper finds that more resources, and a greater commitment to building the capacity of people with a cognitive disability is required before it can become feasible and an expectation to include their voices in disability program evaluations.

Abstract

"Some evaluations of disability programs now apply participatory methods to include people with cognitive disability in the collection of data. However, more inclusive approaches that engage people with cognitive disability more fully in the decisions about the evaluation remain rare. We examined why this may be the case, using Weaver and Cousin’s criteria for inclusive evaluation to measure the depth of inclusion of our methods in an evaluation that we did that included people with cognitive disability. We found that the participatory methods in the design supported some of the dimensions of inclusive evaluation–diversity, depth of participation, power relations, and manageability. Relying on other people to represent the interests of people with cognitive disability in the governance, data collection, and dissemination compromised the control dimension of inclusion. Resources and commitment to build the capacity of people with cognitive disability as team members, mentors, advisers, and direct participants is required to make inclusion feasible and an expectation in disability program evaluations." (Robinson, R., Fisher, K.R., and Strike, R., 2014)

Contents

• Disability Program Evaluation and the Influence of Inclusive Disability Research
• Inclusive Disability Research
• Inclusive Evaluation and the Place of Transformative Evaluation Theory
• Participatory and Inclusive Evaluation
• Framework for Measuring Inclusivity in Evaluation
• Resident Support Program
• Experience of the Dimensions of Inclusive Evaluation
• Depth of Participation
• Constraints on the Goals for Inclusive Evaluation
• Implications for Policy and Practice