Research projects

Members of the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group have participated in a wide range of projects researching key aspects of the social history of learning disability. These research projects have often been run as collaborations with other organisations, drawing upon an array of funding sources.

The Victoria and Stuart project

Between 2022-2024, SHLD members Liz Tilley and Lorna Rouse from The Open University contributed to The Victoria and Stuart project. This research aimed to find out the best ways to help people with learning disabilities plan for the end of their life. Visit the Victoria and Stuart website to find out more about this research and the end-of-life care planning toolkit that was produced.

Developing the Day-Doc

Since November 2022, SHLD member Ned Redmore from The Open University has been co-producing the Day-Doc, a tool to support day-services to document and respond to the views and experiences of autistic people with profound learning disabilities. The tool builds on Ned’s PhD research which highlighted areas of experience important to this group and suggested how day-services could better respond to them. Ned received funding from Autistica to work with people with learning disabilities, autistic people, family members and day-service staff to co-produce the tool. It provides instruction, resources and a framework for documenting the views and experiences of autistic adults with profound learning disabilities.

Finding Ivy

From 1940 to 1941 around 70,000 adults with mental and physical disabilities or mental illness living in institutions across Germany and Austria were systematically killed under a Nazi state-led programme called Aktion T4. The victims were deemed to have ‘life unworthy of life’.

The exhibition tells the previously unknown story of the 13 British-born victims of this murderous assault on disabled people. Most of them were from the families of German and Austrian immigrants who moved to Britain to work in the early twentieth century before fatefully returning to Germany before the Second World War. Others were from mixed marriages between British and German or Austrian nationals.

An international team of researchers led by Dr Helen Atherton from the University of Leeds and including Dr Simon Jarrett, visiting research fellow from the Open University has meticulously and painstakingly reconstructed the fascinating lives of these people, as well as telling the story of the T4 programme in which they were caught up, and its aftermath.

Since early 2024 the exhibition has been touring venues in the UK, Austria and Germany (it has been produced in both English and German). It is attracting large numbers of visitors and media interest. Events have been held which have included family descendants of the victims, and people with learning disabilities who have reflected on the stories, sometimes through dance and music. For further information about future exhibitions and events, visit the website of the Hartheim Memorial Centre in Austria.

No Going Back:  Prudhoe Hospital

Run by Skills for People, a Newcastle Upon Tyne self advocacy organisation, this Heritage Lottery Funded project recorded the oral histories of people who lived in Prudhoe Hospital, a former large long-stay institution.
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Twenty one years of working together:  a history of Central England People First

In 2010 Central England People First, with the guidance of the Research Group, was awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £48,000 to run an oral history project of its 21 year history.
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Working with Primary Schools

Covering the London boroughs of Southwark, Lewisham and Kent, this project involved Mabel Cooper, a woman with learning difficulties who was a prominent member of the Research Group.
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A Hidden Heritage: Local Mencap Societies and the Provision of Social Care in East Anglia, 1946–1990

This Open University project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and ran from 2003 to 2005.
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Days Gone By: The Histories of Day Centres for People with Learning Difficulties

This Open University project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and ran from 2006 to 2008.
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Digital Archive of Learning Disability History

In 2010 the Research Group, in close collaboration with the Rix Centre at the University of East London, carried out a scoping exercise to assess the possibilities of a digital archive of learning disability history.
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Empowerment and Disability: Informal Learning through Advocacy and Self-Advocacy

This Grundtvig Learning Partnership project involved The Open University with partners at three European Universities - the University of Gent , the University of Iceland and Trinity College Dublin.
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Hidden History

The Research Group supported Changing Our Lives, the Sandwell based organisation representing people with learning disabilities, to research and undertake an oral history project funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund, where young people with learning disabilities found out about the history of learning disabilities in their area.
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How My Life Has Changed: the experience of moving into supported living

Commissioned by Croydon Adult Services (2009-11) the Research Group deployed life history approaches to work with adults with learning disabilities and explore the experience of moving into Supported Living contexts.
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Oral history of Mental Welfare Officers

This Open University oral history research project in 2000 explored a little-known aspect of the history of social work - the history of mental welfare officers and their role in community care.
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Reclaiming the Past: the Role of Local Mencap Societies in the Development of Community Care in East Anglia, 1946–1980

This Open University project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and ran from 2000 to 2002.
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Staying Local

The Staying Local Project explored the lived experiences of people with learning difficulties who remained within their home inner London borough between 1971 and 2007 - an era when many others were moved out-of-area to receive services-as were many of the people living at Winterbourne View.
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Sterilisation: Then and Now

The Research Group is committed to exploring the hidden history of sterilisation for women with learning disabilities alongside researching contemporary experiences of reproductive choice, control and loss.
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Unlocking the Past - A Royal Albert Hospital Archive

Between 2005 and 2007 this Community Service Volunteers (CSV) Heritage Lottery Funded oral history project, based in Lancaster, documented the residential and working culture of a former large Victorian long stay hospital for people with learning difficulties.
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Keeping Wartime Memories Alive

This was a Carlisle People First Research Team oral history project, which was supported by our Research Group, as well as other organisations.
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