"I think you meant ..."

Reflecting on biography

Kelley Johnson

Twenty five people talked about their lives to a group of researchers who were working with people with learning disabilities on issues around sexuality and relationships. People had many different reasons for wanting to be part of this work.

This paper will explore some of these reasons.

After the life histories were written, two groups of people with learning disabilities came together to talk about them and discuss what was important to them in the accounts. This paper explores what the life histories meant to the people who read and reflected about them. It became clear from the discussions that the stories had very different meanings for those who read them and they were used in very different ways by individuals. The paper concludes with a discussion of the many different ways biography and life history can affect the lives of others who read or hear them.