Background: There is a strong ethical case and an urgent need for more participatory research practices in disability research but a lack of resources to support this. It is important to involve people with learning disabilities and carers at all stages, including when designing training for co-research. Methods: We co-developed training materials…

In this paper, the authors review life stories in learning disability research and practice since the 1960s. Although there is consistent evidence of their value in giving people a voice and an identity beyond the service label, they are not widely used in the provision of health and social care. This is despite long-standing policy commitments to…

This article traces and summarises historiographical trends in the history of learning disability. It identifies three major waves of historical approaches beginning with a medicalised analysis which emerged in the early 20th century. This presented a story of medical progress which began with the asylum movement of the 19th century and…

My name is Paul Christian. I am a Black British man with learning disabilities. The lives and experiences of Black people with learning disabilities are underrepresented in the UK history of learning disability. This article explains my involvement in activism to change this and shares the learning from these projects. It discusses the process of…

Background: In 2006, the United Nations agreed the "Convention On the Rights Of Persons With Disabilities." Article 19, 'Living independently and being included in the community' sets out the 'equal rights of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others…' A generation earlier, a small group of…

This paper reviews the challenges faced by a team at the Grace Eyre Foundation in running a coproduced oral history project during the pandemic. It examines the benefits and challenges of working online, comparing this to face-to-face approaches. For over 100 years, the Grace Eyre Foundation has provided support to people with learning…

It is perhaps inevitable that the academic study of learning disabilities is often undertaken by established scholars with little lived experience of the condition. So, what has it been like for someone from outside the academy, with a long career in the arts, who is also the father of a severely learning-disabled young man, to write a book-length…

This paper outlines, through a transnational discourse between partners in Egypt and the UK, an overview of the literature on the definition and features of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) with associated learning needs and health conditions as applied to children and young people in Egypt. As a low- to middle-income country, Egypt has a poor and…

In the UK, policy on adult social care places an emphasis on maximising choice and control for service users, including people with learning disabilities. The shift from the provision of organised services for groups of people to offering individual and personal budgets and pots of money for people to buy their own services has major implications…

A nonverbal learning disability is believed to be caused by damage, disorder or destruction of neuronal white matter in the brain's right hemisphere and may be seen in persons experiencing a wide range of neurological diseases such as hydrocephalus and other types of brain injury (Harnadek & Rourke 1994). This article probes the relationship…

People with learning disabilities have higher levels of health needs compared with the general population (Nocon, 2006, Background evidence for the DRC's formal investigation into health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities or mental health problems. London and Manchester, Disability Rights Commission). Research has shown…

Paul Burstow, a former minister for social care, was once charged with finding savings in care services. He completed his last two years, cut the Valuing People Now programme early, and returned to the back benches. He did, however, draft a Care and Support Bill and has subsequently used this experience to chair a joint Parliamentary Scrutiny…

Paul Richards is one of those individuals who make a difference and is as far from institutional as one can be. The author met up with him at the Learning Disability Today conference in London to talk more about his work and life. Paul coordinates the service user involvement across Southdown Housing Association, based in Sussex.

This paper describes the current challenges facing nurses and other professionals who care for people with profound and multiple intellectual disabilities. This particularly vulnerable group of service users often rely on a repertoire of non-verbal behaviours to communicate their needs and wishes. These challenges include the requirements of…

Social inclusion and citizenship form the key objective of "Valuing People Now" (2009), but achieving this meaningfully with people whose behaviour can challenge services remains elusive for many services. This article describes the philosophy, development, operationalisation and evaluation of a person-centred day opportunities and supported…