Abstract
Dismantling structural and systemic ableism in nursing research is essential to the promotion of equity with disability communities; however, issues of access and ableism rarely find their way into dialogues about equity-oriented and anti-oppressive research in nursing. We think with disabled scholars of colour, such as Campbell (2001) and Lewis (2022), who define ableism as a system of beliefs and values that “assigns value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness” (Lewis, 2022). Nursing research methodologies and practices tend to be enacted under an assumption that people move, think, communicate, sense, and engage with the world in similar ways that are considered “typical” or “normal” (Rice et al., 2021). If not excluding non-normative people from research altogether, access most often gets considered through prioritizing regulations to address inaccessible environments and remove barriers through built environment design and accommodations (Chandler et al., 2023; Hamraie, 2017). While we have seen increased attention to accessibility and uptake of universal design that focuses on ‘accessibility for all’ in academic and research structures and practices, disability scholars and communities have highlighted that these attempts often fall short as they are generally take a reactive approach and leave existing structures intact, therefore limiting whose voices can be heard and what stories get told in research (Chandler et al., 2023; Hamraie, 2017). This presentation will address issues of access in research methodologies in nursing from a critical disability perspective (Croft et al., 2025; Hamraie, 2017; Mingus, 2011), drawing on lessons learned from a community-engaged research project with autistic and 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. Specifically, we will reflect on how access became a process, rather than a box to be checked, that was embodied, enacted, and felt across our project, from building and working together as a diverse team of neurodivergent and disabled researchers and community members to enacting the methods through which autistic storytelling could occur in the study. We will discuss how nursing research can move beyond the concrete and material practices of accommodations and accessibility to consider how to reimagine access as a process that requires a radical revisioning of ableist systems and structures in which this research occurs.
Notes
References:
Campbell, F. A. (2001). Inciting legal fictions: 'Disability's' date with ontology and the ableist body of the law. Griffith Law Review, 10, 42.
Croft, L., Harrison, E., Grant-Young, J., McGillvray, K., Sebring, J. C. H., & Rice, C. (2024). Toward access justice in the academy. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069241227075
Hamraie, A. (2017). Building access: Universal design and the politics of disability. University of Minnesota Press.
Lewis, T. A. (2022, January). Working definition of ableism – January 2022 update. https://www.talilalewis.com/blog/working-definition-of-ableism-january-2022-update
Mingus, M. (2011, May 5). Access intimacies: The missing link. Leaving Evidence. https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/
Rice, C., Riley, S., LaMarre, A., & Bailey, K. A. (2021). What a body can do: Rethinking body functionality through a feminist materialist disability lens. Body Image, 38, 95–105.
Sigma Membership
Lambda Pi at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Health Equity or Social Determinants of Health, DEI/BIPOC, Nursing Research, Ableism, Disability Discrimination
Recommended Citation
Straus, Elizabeth, "Reimagining Access in Nursing Research Methodologies" (2026). International Nursing Research Congress (INRC). 108.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2026/presentations_2026/108
Conference Name
37th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Conference Year
2026
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-08-03
Reimagining Access in Nursing Research Methodologies
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dismantling structural and systemic ableism in nursing research is essential to the promotion of equity with disability communities; however, issues of access and ableism rarely find their way into dialogues about equity-oriented and anti-oppressive research in nursing. We think with disabled scholars of colour, such as Campbell (2001) and Lewis (2022), who define ableism as a system of beliefs and values that “assigns value to people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness” (Lewis, 2022). Nursing research methodologies and practices tend to be enacted under an assumption that people move, think, communicate, sense, and engage with the world in similar ways that are considered “typical” or “normal” (Rice et al., 2021). If not excluding non-normative people from research altogether, access most often gets considered through prioritizing regulations to address inaccessible environments and remove barriers through built environment design and accommodations (Chandler et al., 2023; Hamraie, 2017). While we have seen increased attention to accessibility and uptake of universal design that focuses on ‘accessibility for all’ in academic and research structures and practices, disability scholars and communities have highlighted that these attempts often fall short as they are generally take a reactive approach and leave existing structures intact, therefore limiting whose voices can be heard and what stories get told in research (Chandler et al., 2023; Hamraie, 2017). This presentation will address issues of access in research methodologies in nursing from a critical disability perspective (Croft et al., 2025; Hamraie, 2017; Mingus, 2011), drawing on lessons learned from a community-engaged research project with autistic and 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. Specifically, we will reflect on how access became a process, rather than a box to be checked, that was embodied, enacted, and felt across our project, from building and working together as a diverse team of neurodivergent and disabled researchers and community members to enacting the methods through which autistic storytelling could occur in the study. We will discuss how nursing research can move beyond the concrete and material practices of accommodations and accessibility to consider how to reimagine access as a process that requires a radical revisioning of ableist systems and structures in which this research occurs.
Description
This presentation will address issues of access in research methodologies in nursing from a critical disability perspective, drawing on lessons learned from a community-engaged research project with autistic 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals. We reflect on how access became a process, rather than a box to be checked, that was embodied, enacted, and felt across our project, from working together as a diverse team of neurodivergent and disabled researchers and community members to enacting the methods.