Whose Life Story Is It? Self-Reflexive Life Story Research with People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

This article explores the unique relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee that lies at the heart of collaborative oral history, specifically in relation to life story research with people with intellectual disabilities. It is concerned with interrogating this relationship and how this form of collaboration can be represented. This article argues that amplifying the voice of people with intellectual disabilities is a fraught exercise primarily because life stories occupy an uneasy ground somewhere between biography and autobiography. Using examples of two self-reflexive life stories of two adults with intellectual disabilities, we argue that a certain measure of self-reflexivity in the presentation of life stories of people with intellectual disabilities can enhance the story that is told.