In Strands 1 (disabled women and sexuality) and 2 (disabled women and reproduction), empirical research will be carried out using the biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM) (Wengraf, 2001, 2007). BNIM enables the researcher to focus on both the individual and particular in biography and personal meaning, as well as wider socio-cultural processes and historical contexts. The reason for choosing this particular qualitative method is threefold. First, we concur with the idea that bodies are discursively constructed and constrained by socially constructed powers (Butler, 1993; Shildrick, 2002). Narrative interviews will enable an analytical dimension that takes into account such discursive representations about embodied, gendered sexualities, as well as the constraints, challenges and possibilities experienced by disabled women. Second, the specificity of BNIM is in accordance with the principles of Emancipatory Disability Research, a crucial aspect of this proposal, as it will enable the exploration of disabled people’s reproductive and sexual lives in their own words and on their own terms. Finally, BNIM promotes an introspective environment that is conducive to the discussion of sensitive topics, such as intimacy, sexuality and reproduction.
