Facilitating the voice of disabled women: the biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM) in action

This paper demonstrates that bringing the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) to disability studies, under a qualitative narrative approach, promises to further develop the field. The article shows the effectiveness of the interviewing techniques of the method in facilitating the voice of marginalised minority groups and in particular disabled women. The approach supports inclusive research which goes beyond the practice of classifying and pathologising bodies with impairments, as is common in mainstream medical research which seeks to cure, modify and normalise people who are situated as docile and ‘abnormal’ human beings. Comments that were proffered by disabled women themselves indicate that the interviewing techniques of the BNIM create a platform for those who are located at the margins of society to play an active part in the co-construction of knowledge in academic circles, in a scenario which answers the question posed by Spivak (1988). Can the subaltern speak? Marxism and the interpretation of culture. New York, NY: Columbia University Press).