A diverse group of people having a picnic on a blanket in a park. They are sitting and standing, with some using accessibility aids such as a wheelchair and a prosthetic leg. There's a service dog and a basket of food. The setting is green and leafy.

About The Project

Our overarching aim is to explore the experiences of disabled young people as they move towards adulthood.

There are many different things that could be important during this time – we want to understand what matters from the perspective of disabled young people. It could be things like planning to go to further education or university, or thinking about work, or thinking about moving home, or hoping to explore different relationships, or getting involved in different aspects of social life. It could be some or none of those things. We know that there are many things that can make becoming an adult difficult for disabled young people. Things like prejudice, physical and social barriers, lack of resources to name a few. We also know that the pandemic has not helped and now the cost of living crisis is producing other difficulties. It is important to identify anything that can help disabled young people move towards the futures they want. This can include help from services such as education and health and social care. It can also be about changing social attitudes.

We aim to explore all of this and highlight what works and what doesn’t work in supporting disabled young people.

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Project Advisors

To help us do the research in ways that are appropriate and relevant we are working with a range of organisations that support and advocate with disabled young people in Newcastle and Glasgow. Very importantly we are working with some disabled young people who act as advisors across the lifetime of the project. Our advisors feed into all aspects of how we do the work and how we make sure we identify key points to feed into policy and practice in both research locations and beyond.

What the Research Involves

The approaches we are using at include:

  • Talking with disabled young people over time about their experiences.

  • Exploring ways that might capture their experiences through practices such as taking photographs, or making films, or writing stories.

  • Bringing disabled young people together to identify differences and similarities in their experiences.

  • Talking with families of disabled young people and advocacy groups about their experiences of supporting disabled young people.

Timeline for the project

The project began January 2023 and is funded till June 2025. Key stages in the project include:

  • January 2023 - March 2023: Establish our project advisory team and our disabled young people advisors.

  • April 2023 – December 2024: Undertake fieldwork research.

  • January 2025 – March 2025: Agree key findings and recommendations with project advisory team and our disabled young people.

  • April 2025 – June 2025: Disseminate key findings and recommendations, supported by our project advisory group and disabled young people, to policy makers and practitioners.