Peer-reviewed article
Co-analysis in virtual spaces: engaging children with disabilities, families, and the community as research partners in low-resource settings.
Sagun KS, Muego PEN, Aguila MER ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This methodological study examined how to include children with disabilities, their families, and community members as active research partners in analyzing data about their lives in urban low-resource areas of the Philippines. Researchers used virtual sessions with storytelling, drawing, and interviews with 8 children aged 9-16, parents, and community workers to co-analyze findings together. The study found that while participatory methods can give marginalized groups a voice in research, structural barriers like poverty and limited digital access still create barriers to meaningful inclusion.
Key points
- Layered accessibility combining universal design with disability-specific support is essential for including children with disabilities in research processes
- Co-analysis methods themselves can create new hierarchies that privilege certain communication and cognitive abilities, even when accessibility measures are in place
- Virtual spaces for research participation generated different exclusions rather than eliminating them entirely
- Participatory research methods cannot overcome deep structural inequalities without broader changes in power distribution and resource allocation
- Epistemic pluralism is needed—recognizing and valuing different ways that diverse participants can contribute to data interpretation
Limitations
This is a methodological paper describing one project in Philippine urban communities; it does not compare outcomes of co-analysis versus traditional analysis, nor does it test whether this approach improves the lives or wellbeing of participating children. The findings may not generalize to other cultural contexts or rural settings.
Abstract
Background Traditional disability studies often overlook children with disabilities, their families, and communities from analytical processes, particularly in low-resource settings. This methodological paper describes co-analysis conducted across virtual spaces with marginalized stakeholders as partners in data interpretation, examining whether participatory approaches can address epistemic injustices while navigating resource constraints in urban Philippine communities. Methods Children were engaged in data-gathering through a mosaic approach (storytelling, drawing, photo elicitation, interview) across 24 individual virtual sessions, while adults participated in eight (8) online focus groups. We employed a four-pronged co-analysis approach with 49 participants from a community-based rehabilitation (CBR) program for urban low-resource communities: eight (8) children with disabilities aged 9-16 years, 18 parents, nine (9) CBR workers, and 14 local organization members. The co-analysis approach comprised: (1) participant-directed methodology, (2) grassroots epistemology, (3) iterative partnership building, and (4) collective reflexivity addressing researcher positionality. Results Co-analysis revealed four insights. First, layered accessibility is essential for inclusion, combining universal design with disability-specific scaffolding. Second, co-analysis itself creates hierarchies as analytical frameworks privilege certain cognitive and communication abilities despite accessibility adaptations. We argue for epistemic pluralism, recognizing different ways of analytical contribution. Third, virtual spaces generated different hierarchies rather than eliminating them. Fourth, structural inequities persisted despite methodological innovation, as digital access, economic precarity, and cognitive demands reproduced exclusions our methodology aimed to dismantle. Conclusions Achieving epistemic justice through co-analysis requires institutional resources, researcher humility that values diverse analytical contributions, and acknowledgment that participatory methods may expand access but cannot overcome structural inequalities without concurrent shifts in power and resources.