The Research behind The Purple Patch
The Purple Patch comic is based on a real life research project by The Purple Research Group and Melissa Kirby.
The Purple Research Group were formed in 2020 as part of Melissa's PhD, which was based at the University of Leeds, supervised by Professor Karen Burland and Dr Freya Bailes. The research was all about the arts-based learning experiences of people with learning disabilities attending Purple Patch Arts.
The research used a participatory action research approach. This meant that:
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Adults with learning disabilities were involved and had control over all stages of the project
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The project was designed to be inclusive and accessible
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The project was designed to create positive change for/with people with learning disabilities
The Purple Research Group met on Zoom from August 2020 -July 2023 to conduct their research for this project. The Purple Patch comic tells their story. Read on to find out how we did our research.
Beginning our Research
In 2020, Melissa asked us if we wanted to be researchers on a project all about what we got out of going to Purple Patch Arts. None of us had done any research before.
We watched five video chapters that Melissa made about what being a researchers is like. We practiced collecting data, filling in a research diary and we did a quiz about research to see what we had learned. We also learned about consent and 'saying yes or no' to being a researcher.
John says, “at the start we didn’t know what we were doing, it was a new world, but we know now what research is”.
After watching the videos, 7 of us said 'yes' to being a researcher - we named ourselves the Purple Research Group.
We met on Zoom every other week to do our research together during the pandemic. We used arts-based and adaptive methods to make our research accessible.
We created Purple Patch worlds, like this one by Charlie and Jo, to help us think about the most important parts of Purple Patch Arts. These helped us to pick three research themes:
- People
- Arts and Variety
- Accessibility and Support
Each research theme lasted for around 6-8 weeks.
Researching People
Our first research theme was all about people. We picked the research questions and methods together - we were interested in finding out if people were important to our experiences at Purple Patch Arts and what roles people at Purple Patch Arts fill in our lives.
We chose to make posters, like this one by Liam, to show what we felt before and after going to Purple Patch. We also had lots of discussions. We used different styles of communication in our research sessions, including verbal, Makaton, symbols and writing in the chat!
We also analysed our data together. We thought about what was most interesting or important about the data. Then we thought about how our data might be grouped together. Melissa helped us with this part of the analysis - analysis can be tricky but we enjoyed learning how to do it!
After we had created our themes, we checked the data by cutting and sorting it into home made post-boxes. These ones were made by Leanne. Our post boxes were inspired by The ACTIVE Music project (Rickson et al., 2014).
We learned that people are very important to us. They help us to learn and to feel welcome and comfortable. People at Purple Patch filled lots of different roles in our lives, but 'family' was the most important.
Tracey says: “we are belonging to something, we are Purple Patch family”
Researching Arts and Variety
Our second research theme was all about arts and variety. The arts are very important to us. We wanted to find out what, if anything, made the arts special and if they helped us to learn at Purple Patch Arts.
We chose to make posters, like this one by Tracey, to show what we thought was special about the arts. We also made a questionnaire which helped us to think about the ways the arts might help us to learn. We filled in our questionnaire for 5 weeks.
This time we felt much more confident doing our analysis because we had done it before! We made a theme map which shows how all of our themes fit together (we did this by telling Melissa over zoom where to put post-it notes on her wall!)
This section of our comic shows some of the most common arts-based activities we recorded in our questionnaire, including including music, drama, arts and literature. These activities helped to make learning fun and accessible!
We learned that the arts can help to make learning more accessible because you can be yourself, it's not a competition, and “you can’t get arts wrong” (Liam).
The arts also supported our wellbeing. Tracey says: “it [the arts] makes me be somewhere else for that short time too. I don’t know where I go, it’s my special place and each time it’s different”
Researching Accessibility and Support
Our last research theme was all about accessibility and support. We wanted to find out what was accessible and not accessible about Purple Patch Arts. We also wanted to share what our dream accessible worlds would be like.
We chose to write poems about accessibility at Purple Patch Arts and in our lives more generally. Here is one of our acrostic poems. We also took photographs of things that were accessible and not accessible.
This page in our comic shows what our dream accessible world might look like: everyone is welcome, buildings are accessible and there is a wheelchair lane!
We managed to meet up for the first time in person in September 2021! We led on the analysis for this theme. We cut out our data and created a visual map on a big piece of paper.
We also talked about all the things we had learned as researchers and we got researcher certificates!
Our research shows that there are lots of different things that help to make activities and spaces accessible, including transport, physical access and cost.
We also learned that people can make learning accessible or not accessible. 'Accessible people' are:
- Friendly and welcoming
- Open minded
- Helpful and supportive
- Easy to communicate with
- Respectful
People who work with people with learning disabilities should aim to be 'accessible'.
There was a difference between accessibility in the real world and our dream accessible worlds. Not everything is as accessible as it seems - Tracey's photos from the research show this in real life. The entrance to this building is accessible, but the inside of the same building has a large flight of stairs.
It is very important to share clear and accurate information about accessibility. Bad experiences with accessibility may mean that people with learning disabilities do not attend activities/ learning organisations in the future.
Being a Researcher
When we first started doing research together, we felt nervous and we were not sure what to expect. But now, we have learned lots of new things about research. We all feel more confident about doing research and this has helped us to try other new things.
Ella says: "Doing the research gave me confidence"
We also learned new skills, like using Zoom, working as a team and doing analysis!
Liam says: "We all contribute to this sort of thing in different ways"
We're proud to be researchers. Tracey says: "I’m really proud of that [being a researcher] and I mean that”
We think research should involve researchers with learning disabilities
We know that people with learning disabilities can be brilliant researchers. We would love to see more people with learning disabilities sharing their skills and expertise in research.
John says: "having a learning disability can offer something great"
Ella says: "I wish there were other researchers with learning disabilities"
Are you a researcher organisation interested in working with researchers with learning disabilities? We would love to hear from you.
Liam says: "ask and do it [research] with disabled people, because you will learn so much more"
Are you an adult with a learning disability? We want you to know... "if you have a disability you could do a comic and you can do research" - John