On the Road Together: Issues Observed in the Process of a Research Duo Working Together in a Long-Term and Intense Collaboration in an Inclusive Research Project

Inclusive research practices can lead to progress towards an inclusive society. With this study, we aimed to gain insight into dilemmas and catalysing processes within the long-term collaboration of an inclusive research duo: one non-academic researcher who lives with the label of intellectual disabilities and visual impairment, and one academic researcher. Both researchers kept personal diaries about their collaboration process. Inductive thematic analysis, individually and as a group of authors, was employed. Our findings reveal six necessary conditions for diversity-sensitive work in inclusive research: (a) experiencing belonging within the research group, (b) empowering people in a team through growing self-awareness and competence-building, (c) having room for reflection and searching for various ways of communication, (d) sharing power and ownership of research processes, (e) having enough time to foster the above conditions, and (f) joining in a mutual engagement in accommodating vulnerability in dialogue and collaborative work. Awareness of stigma-related issues and the risk of tokenism is also required.