Mapping Disability -My Life in the City Project at the 8th Annual SNSC Research Forum

Original article published in the SOUTHERN NETWORK OF SPECIALIZED CARE: NETWORK HIGHLIGHTS Fall 2015

Dr. Ann Fudge-Schormans, Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Social Work, McMaster University, with a presentation entitled: Mapping Disability -My Life in the City Project. Dr. Schormans (pictured here) has discovered that people with DD are very much engaged in their lives in the city of Toronto. But what are the experiences like for people with intellectual disabilities? Schormans and her research team are finding out a lot about the geo-spatial lives of 12 people with DD as they go about their daily lives.  Her innovative research project, “My Life in the City,” is using GPS and Geographic Information System technology, voice recordings and iPads to record their experiences and map their community connections. If successful, Schormans hopes to expand the pilot project to northern and rural communities across Ontario and Canada. This research is funded through a grant from the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. “It’s not just where they go, but why they go there, what they do, and who they talk to,” she says. “Did they choose to go there on their own, or did a social worker or someone else send them? And is this somewhere they even want to go?” Questions of safety and whether this group feels excluded, ostracized or discriminated against are largely (to date) undocumented, Schormans says. “What places do they avoid and why? What is it about a place that makes them come back?”

A video clip that describes the study can be viewed at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/25/mcmaster_research_studies_everyday_lives_of_intellectually_disabled.html
Dr. Ann Fudge-Schormans can be contacted at fschorman@mcmaster.ca