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All aerial photography interpretation must be used with caution. When well done and supported by ground truth exercises they can be a valuable aid to site investigation, depending on the quality and scale of the aerial photographs and the skill and background of the interpreter. A rare situation has arisen where eight interpretations of a landslip complex in gently folded Tertiary marine sediments overlain by young colluvium and covered by dense equatorial rainforest were made by different professional interpreters. This is used as an opportunity to illustrate the potential difficulty in obtaining a reliable interpretation. Five of the interpretations were made without knowledge of a major new landslip which occurred in an area of existing landslips and three were made with knowledge of the new landslip, all using the same pre-major new landslip aerial photographs. Of the five made without knowledge of the new landslip, two did not identify existing landslips at the site and three partially identified landslips but each in a different configuration. With knowledge of the new landslip the interpreters identified old features in the aerial photographs similar to the features produced or exposed by the new landslip.

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This report seeks to demonstrate how the telling of stories both within a counselling and research setting enables people to reconnect with strengths and abilities that `enable' rather than `disable' and how, by resisting disabling practices and medical models of understanding, people can find new ways of identifying themselves outside the labels of `visually impaired' and `blind'.

A B S T R AC T This article reflects on a doctoral research project undertaken by the author, which used co-constructed audio narratives to explore the experience of living with a visual impairment and the effect this had on claims to identity. The research project was attempting to respond to Duckett and Pratt's review of visual impairment research which called for research where there was empowerment and 'greater inclusion of visually impaired people' (2007: 7).Themes emerging from the research that were thought to have an influence on identity were related to negative societal attitudes towards visual impairment, including living in a world dominated by sighted perspectives, relationships with sighted people, attitudes towards education, schooling and employment and not having a voice within the agencies set up to support people who are visually impaired.Within this article the author specifically explores the use of collaborative narrative methodology, using excerpts from the narrative text to reflect on both the process of the research and whether this could be considered emancipatory, and also to demonstrate how societal attitudes affected the four research participants, and the author's experience of living with a visual impairment, and the effect this had on claims to identity. K E Y WO R D S e m a n c i p a t o r y r e s e a r c h p r a c t i c e s , i d e n t i t y, n a r r a t i ve r e s e a r c h , v i s u a l i m p a i r m e n t