Everyday life in a residence for people with intellectual impairments: A Conversation Analysis of interaction between residents and care staff

How is communication with people with intellectual impairments compromised by their disabilities? How are they to be allowed, or encouraged, to live as full a life as possible? The UK has seen the rise of “person-centred” services which are meant to empower people with learning disabilities by implementing systems and policies that operate at a broad level. But what happens in actual practice? I shall report findings from a research project which looked in detail at what goes on in residential services. We wanted to identify what features of ordinary, day-to-day interaction encourage empowerment, and what features might obstruct it. And rather than rely on interviews and other indirect measures, we got our evidence by recording the interactions as they happened, in their mundane reality. I'll report on one curiously double-edged aspect of the talk we heard: the way staff tried to empower the respondents by offering them choices. Staff support residents in talk – but talk is complex, and may go badly awry.