The Disabled Youth Investigates (DIY) action research capacity building project aimed to improve inclusion and participation of youth with disabilities in research as researchers through a peer-to-peer approach. The project was conducted by the MRC/UVRI/LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Disability Research Group. The project recruited 7 youths with disabilities and 7 without disabilities. The youth were given extensive training in disability research skills, given internship placements in various ongoing research projects at the Unit and at Child Health Development Centre (CHDC) of Makerere University. The youths collected life histories from other youth with disabilities, analysed the data and co-authored a paper.

DIY aimed to improve participation and inclusion of youth with disabilities in research. The project trained youth with disabilities in research skills to develop and implement youth led African disability research. Also, to create opportunities for disabled youth employment as well as facilitating knowledge sharing and awareness raising.

The DYI group comprises of youth researchers and their mentors. DIY utilised a peer-to-peer approach and therefore, recruited 14 youths (7 with disabilities and 7 without disabilities). Each youth with a disability applied with a youth without disability with whom they worked together on different tasks. Youth without disabilities supported colleagues with disabilities to meet their accessibility needs such as sign language interpretation and guiding services at work.

Youth with disabilities have been neglected in access to education, healthcare, social participation, and employment. They face a lot of negative attitudes and high risk of unemployment. Participation and inclusion of youth with disabilities in research is key to understand their experiences and develop contextually appropriate and effective strategies to promote participation and inclusion for all.

The project intended to influence all research organisations to include persons with disabilities particularly youths by giving them the opportunity to contribute to research as participants and as researchers. Their participation is crucial in enriching research findings, improve the capacity of youths and create opportunities for employment in research. The project also targeted policy makers. The project wanted to test the peer-to-peer support model in workplaces and promote this to increase on the employment of youth with disabilities.

As a group, we have made several presentations at different international and national conferences including the AFRINEAD conference in South Africa in December 2023, the CBR/CBID Africa Conference in Entebbe in September 2024, the Kyambogo Disability Inclusive Higher Education Conference in November 2024 and during the weekly MRC/UVRI and IAVI Science seminar series in September 2023 and in June 2024. The Disability Research Group has got a website and social media accounts which are used to share the group’s work. In addition, the team has drafted 3 papers of which one is under review and 2 will be submitted soon.