Disabled people from global majority backgrounds

Research conducted by We Are The People and funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Who are we?

This strand of We Are The People is led by three disabled researchers:

Stuart Read (Strand Lead)
Sharon Colilles (Internal Researcher)
Gigi El-Halaby (Community Researcher)

What do we want to do?

Through our research, we want to learn about the experiences of disabled people from global majority backgrounds in terms of accessing disability diagnoses/health conditions.

By ‘global majority backgrounds', we are referring to any disabled person, carer or ally, whose heritage originates in non-white British or other white groups. For example, disabled people of African, Asian, Caribbean or Indigenous origin.

Our research appreciates that language regarding race and ethnicity is continuously evolving, so we recognise that individuals may describe themselves using different terminology if this is more authentic to them.

This project will explore topics like:

What are the experiences of disabled people from global majority backgrounds trying to access disability diagnoses/health conditions?
What are the barriers faced around receiving disability/health conditions diagnoses, and how can these be removed?
How can trusting relationships be developed so that experiences of disability/health conditions diagnoses can be comfortably shared?

How are we researching this?

We're currently creating a ‘working group’ of disabled people and allies from global majority backgrounds to help shape our forthcoming project. This working group will meet a few times to discuss how the project is going, and whether any improvements can be made.

We'll also talk about how to share the project and its findings in the best way.

If you're interested in learning more about what this entails, you can find more on this information sheet.

In 2025, there will be other ways to get involved in the project, and we will update this webpage with the relevant information when it's available.