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This talk will be of interest to anyone who cares about disability and why it matters in everyday life. In the talk, I will explore how disability is understood in different ways at different times and in different places. I will describe how the ways in which disability is understood affects people’s lives by talking about three research. Each of the projects explores the lives of disabled children, young people and adults, and their families and other allies and asks how and why disability matters in communities, including education, health and social care.

The first project is: Living Life to the Fullest: life, death, disability, and the human. This project reveals the hopes and dreams of children and young people who are expected to live â€ÈÙ³ó´Ç°ù³Ù’ lives (Economic and Social Research Council). 

The second is: Humanising Healthcare, a project dedicated to finding and sharing healthcare practices that enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities (Economic and Social Research Council).

The third is: Tired of Spinning Plates? A project to understand and improve the mental health experiences of carers of adults with learning disabilities (National Institute of Health and Social Care Research).

Each of the projects shares a commitment to working with disabled people and their families as research leaders and partners – a form of research known as co-production - with the aim of informing policy and practice to improve the lives of disabled people and to make disability matter. 

Prof. Katherine Runswick-Cole is Professor of Education and Director of Research and Innovation in The School of Education, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. She is known for her work in critical disability studies and in disabled children’s childhood studies. Her work is informed by disability scholarship and activism and her experience as the mother of two adult children, one of whom has been given the label of ‘intellectual disability.’