PIRL — Participatory Digital Storytelling for Disability-Inclusive Research

Partnerships for Inclusive Research and Learning (PIRL) was a four-year international participatory research project, funded by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, involving over 100 community-based and academic researchers, students and professionals — people with and without disabilities — working primarily in Cameroon (Bamenda) and Sierra Leone (Freetown), together with partners in Canada, including the University of Bamenda, NWAWWD and SNEG in Cameroon, One Family People in Sierra Leone, and the University of Toronto.
As part of its knowledge-mobilisation strategy, PIRL trained seven participants — six based in Cameroon or Sierra Leone and one in Canada, two of whom identified as persons with disabilities — in digital storytelling: producing 2-5 minute videos combining recorded narration with graphics, text, images and music. Participants took part in facilitated workshops and 'Story Circles', a structured group process for developing and giving feedback on story ideas, and jointly created project-specific guidelines for the method. The group produced six digital stories, each addressing a different aspect of disability-inclusive research.
The process and outcomes are documented in a peer-reviewed article, 'Digital storytelling to promote disability-inclusive research in Africa,' published in the African Journal of Disability (2024), which names the participants' roles, the facilitation process and lessons for future participatory digital-storytelling projects.
Caution: this is a small, time-limited pilot (seven participants, six stories) rather than a service delivered at scale, and no continuation or institutional funding beyond the four-year research grant was identified — its value lies in a rigorously documented, replicable co-design methodology rather than demonstrated reach.

Read the full analysis: https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1495/2884