‘Voice’ matters, not primarily for legal, rights or procedural reasons, but because it connects with a fundamental human urge to communicate the narratives of our lives and in so doing foster understanding and compassion. This chapter is written from the underlying perspective that all children, with or without disabilities or special needs, have a right to have their views (narratives) heard and to be asked about matters concerning them. Progress in consulting with disabled children has lagged behind that of formally seeking children's views more generally. This was recognised by Morris (2003) and Gray (2002), who noted the paucity of information obtained directly from disabled children and young people.

However, the first decade of the 21st century saw a widening body of work that involves hearing the views of children, including disabled children, and when consultation has taken place in authentic ways we can see genuine improvements in provision. For example, the development of inclusive libraries (e.g. the explicit inclusion of materials accessible to people with severe learning difficulties) has been triggered as a response to the demands from disabled people (Lacey, forthcoming). This positive outcome would not have been realised without the seeking of views being considered as a possibility, appropriate opportunities provided to communicate views and, in turn, these views being understood and acted upon.

In this chapter, I examine the fine grain of facilitating the voice of disabled children, particularly in the research context (with implications for other contexts). First, I review some ethical ground rules for consulting with disabled children. Second, I discuss various methods, developed across a range of research and evaluation projects, for facilitating such consultation. Third, I summarise some key messages about what it is that disabled children are telling us, through such processes, about their lives and experiences. Running through this material is the overriding importance of a listening culture.