“What’s Best for you?”: Using Cripistemologies as a Grounding for Participatory Research with Communities that are Non-Verbal

Participatory approaches are a welcome grounding for doing disability research in PE. Despite best intentions however, people that do not best communicate through traditional oral methods (e.g., some individuals with cerebral palsy, autism, D/deaf communities, verbal dyspraxia) are still excluded from research due to a reliance on ‘talk’ to recruit participants, gain informed consent and co-construct data. Embedding work in cripistemologies can dismantle ways of thinking and doing research using only oral methods and provide space to ‘crip’ research in such a way that research is informed by people that are non-verbal for people that are non-verbal. We propose two ways of engaging in cripistemologies, (1) acknowledging ableist baggage and (2) crip time. In this chapter we draw upon our experiences of living as someone that is non-verbal (Christian) and working with communities that are non-verbal (Emma, Rebecca and Helen) to show how we used these cripistemologies and provide ‘tips’ for researchers to ensure people that are non-verbal can also be included in participatory research.