Research and 'Disability': Accounts, Biographies and Policies

This article reviews and re-evaluates a qualitative research project carried out in England in the late
1990s. The project was informed from its inception by the social model of disability, and explores how
�disability� is conceptualised within the accounts of participants defined by others as disabled. It also
examines participants� views of community care services. As part of this discussion, notions of
collaborative and emancipatory research are appraised. The implications of the findings for policy and
practice in the field of social work and social care are also discussed.