Family & Disability Research Collaborative

The Family & Disability Research Collaborative (FDRC), based in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, is committed to creating knowledge-for-action to advance the health and rights of people who experience disability. Since 2007, the FDRC has conducted transdisciplinary, community-partnered research on a range of topics including health inequities; parents and parenting with intellectual disability; disability and discrimination in the child welfare system; sustainable family care; violence against disabled women and girls; inclusive early learning and childcare; and, the social participation and subjective wellbeing of disabled youth. 

Our research

Our research program, involving researchers from multiple academic institutions and disciplines, many of whom have lived experience of disability, has two main branches. These are

  • Sexuality, Relationships and Parenthood. Focused primarily but not exclusively on adults with ascribed intellectual and developmental disabilities, this branch includes research concerned with health inequities; access to justice; violence against women and girls; and, supported parenting.

    For an introduction to the topic see 

    McConnell, D., Aunos, M., Pacheco, L., & Hahn, L. (2020). Reconsidering sexuality, relationships and parenthood for adults with intellectual disabilities.  In the APA Handbook of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (L. Glidden, Editor-in-Chief). American Psychological Association.

  • Social Ecology of Child, Parent and Family Resilience. Focused primarily but not exclusively on children and youth who experience disability, and their families, this branch includes research concerned with the fabric of everyday family life; determinants of parent, child and family well-being; and, inclusive early learning and childcare. 

    For an introduction to some of the issues, see

    McConnell, D., & Savage, A. (2015). Stress and resilience among families caring for children with intellectual disability: Expanding the research agenda. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 2(2), 100-109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-015-0040-z.

Our Approach

Our approach is characterised by a concern with actionable knowledge, or the practical consequences of different ways of thinking and doing; the discipline of thoughtful reflection, that is bringing theory, action and experience into contact with each other; and, methodological pluralism, that is valuing a variety of sources of information. FDRC researchers analyse large population-based data-sets; conduct experimental and observational (cohort) studies; facilitate participatory, action-oriented research and evaluation; and, utilize ethnographic, life history, and other qualitative techniques and critical methods of inquiry. 

Language

FDRC researchers and collaborators each have their own reasoned preferences. They may use identity-first language (e.g. disabled child), which is preferred by some in the disability community, or person-first language (e.g., child with disabilities), which is preferred by others. Taking a pluralist stance, FDRC researchers and collaborators may use identity-first and person-first language interchangeably. Alternatively, they may use other expressions, such as ‘people who experience disability’, referring to both the experience of bodily differences or ‘impairment effects’, and to the effects of ableism, e.g., ontological injury and participation restrictions.