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Appeals | Campaigns | Briefings | Training | Resources | History Project | Participation

What Did You Learn At School Today?

Looking for Disabled People to Interview about Experiences of Education!

The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) is working together with the British Library to record the educational experiences of disabled people over the last 100 years.

We want to interview at least 50 disabled people and record a wide range of experiences of education so that we can reflect these experiences with the changes in society over this time. To ensure we get a wide range we would like you to tell us more about yourself. Our interviewers are all disabled people.

If you are interested in being part of this exciting project then please answer as many of the questions attached as you feel able to:

Questions form (word document text only)

Questions form (word document with pictures)

Introduction letter (word document with pictures)

The interviews will be carried out over the next 18 months beginning in late November 2011.

We will aim to meet the access needs of all interviewers and interviewees.

We think most interviews will be carried out at the home of the interviewee. However if this is not possible we hope to arrange an alternative venue. We will cover agreed expenses.

We may not be able to interview everybody who responds due to time and budget limitations. However, we will let you know or not if we are able to interview you.

Thank you for your interest in this exciting project which will help increase the information available about disabled people’s lives and history.

Aims of the project:

  • We will train a group of disabled volunteers based in London to be oral history interviewers, who will then record the oral history interviews of 50 disabled people across England. Some interviews will also be video recorded.

  • Using these interviews, we will create a learning resource for schools and colleges, including lesson plans and a qualitative evaluation of learning / attitudinal changes. This school pack will include a DVD resource.

  • We plan to work with five London schools to develop and trial the schools pack which may feature as a key resource for the proposed ‘Disabled People’s History Month’ and as part of the Citizenship element of the National Curriculum. This would be an opportunity for disabled and non-disabled children and young people to learn together about the history of segregation and would link to the existing Citizenship work on Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) and Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LBGT) History.

  • We will create a public-access website which will include a historical timeline.

  • All of the interviews, in their entirety, will be housed in a public archive at the British Library’.

Outcomes of the project:

  • This project will validate the experience of every disabled person who is interviewed, perhaps for the first time in their life, giving them a sense of pride in their identity and self-worth.

  • People will learn about and understand the day to day reality of life for many disabled people.

  • Disabled young people will have a greater understanding of their history.

  • This piece of 'qualitative research' will also be invaluable in terms of 'proving' and 'measuring' the direct effect of inclusion in improving the quality of ALL young people's lives. It will also provide inspiration and real evidence to those involved in the struggle for inclusion.

If you have any questions about the project, please contact Kevin Caulfield - Project Co-ordinator.