Research Method

The ISPA project adopts a co-production approach. Overall direction and guidance is provided by a Project Advisory Board (PAB), made up of approximately ten members. These members represent different disciplines and expertise such as health, housing, the independent living movement, and gerontology. The PAB will feedback on our formal governance plan, project management, project recruitment, risk register and ethical processes.

Given that the lived experience of disablement of older individuals is central to our objectives, self-identifying disabled older peer researchers will be recruited and trained to carry out reflective diaries of their neighbourhoods. In total, we aim to create a peer researcher network of fifty individuals based across Scotland, England, and Wales. The Peer Researchers will be supported and trained by the Research Fellow (Dr Dianne Theakstone, University of Stirling) and the ISPA Project Coordinator (Julia Lawrence, University of Stirling).

The lived experiences gathered throughout the project, along with quantitative/qualitative analysis of existing data sets, will inform the development of a new Inclusive Living Toolkit. An action research approach will utilise an Inclusive Alliance to help with the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of this Inclusive Living Toolkit. The Inclusive Alliance, for example, comprises of UK organisations willing to explore alternative approaches to service provision/practices to enable positive change. Fully accessible reports outlining our findings from the study will be available for all research outputs.