Abstract
Since signing and ratifying the United Nations Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Zambia has developed national policies intended to provide equal rights and opportunities for persons with disabilities. The purpose of our inquiry was to explore networks of disability policy and knowledge translation network in Zambia. Disability advocates, disability researchers and persons with disabilities were interviewed using a novel visuospatial method, egocentric network maps. The maps consist of several concentric circles. The center represents the participant, the ‘ego’, whereas other stakeholders are represented through tokens that participants place on the map during interviews. From previous work, this method has been considered as an anchor of discussion between the interviewer and the participant. We believe that this allows for an interviewee-centered method of inquiry. We identified many insights with this holistic approach. Overall, we found that the use of egocentric maps surfaces discrepancies in understanding between the participant and the interviewer, thus making absence visible. This approach brings clarity on the thought processes of the interviewees, allowing them to demonstrate to the interviewer their vision of the network and its influence on the advancement of policy implementation. Egocentric mapping also allows the participants to elaborate on the types of relationships between themselves and the other stakeholders. Taken together, this new methodological approach should be considered by researchers attempting to investigate networks.
