Walking-With as a Co-creative Research Practice With Young Disabled Adults at the Postsecondary Transition

Through a disability studies lens walking-with is explored co-creatively as a relational method to understand the complexities young disabled people face during their transition to postsecondary life. Walking-with is defined by immersion into the lived experiences of young people, fostering an openness to following unpredictable processes in their lives. This approach avoids static representations and instead allows space to follow participants in directing their paths. A long-term collaboration between the authors and three young disabled adults in the postsecondary transition helps to grasp walking-with. The authors understand their position as sensitive allies—spider-sense researchers attuned to subtle, significant signs within the interwoven becoming-processes. Both metaphorical and literal dimensions of walking-with are explored to understand and follow the lives of these young. This article contributes to walking methodologies in which co-creative research illustrates the importance of relational knowledges to listen to the underlying processes that influence how life unfolds for disabled youth.