Doing research with people classified as intellectually disabled
This article presents two so-called recherche avec studies—an interdisciplinary and partnership research method and network from France—conducted with people with intellectual disabilities in two different countries, Canada and France, and shows how these studies contribute to the production of knowledge transcending any local and national particularities. The critical examination of inclusion, which governs the social integration of people with intellectual disabilities, incited the two researchers to conduct with these people a recherche avec, understood as the active participation of the field actors involved and the consideration of their perceptions as indispensable in the production of scientific knowledge. The presentation of the disciplinary, theoretical and methodological fields of each researcher clarifies the place which the latter assign to the experiences and knowledge of people classified as intellectually deficient in their research. The results of the two studies show a continuity in the paths of these people. The comparison of the two recherches avec also underscores their similarities, differences and complementarity as well as their potential mutual advantages.