Learning Disability History, Health and Social Care   Going in and getting out after 20 years Image by Kevin Chettle
   
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Welcome to the webpages of the Social History of Learning Disability research group.

We are a group of people at the Open University who are researching the history of learning disability in several different ways:

• We run annual conferences
• We produce life stories
• The Open University holds the Maureen Oswin archive
• We write books and papers.

Our 2012 conference was held on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th July 2012, and was entitled Health and Learning Disability: past, present and future.

• You can view the programme, listen to the audios and read the abstracts from the 2012 conference on the Annual Conferences page.
• You can read abstracts for previous conferences and seminars.

At our Testimonies of Resistance in Learning Disability History conference we made video recordings of conference speakers. You can watch the video testimonies to find out what our speakers had to say on the topic of resistance.

News items

A sad farewell to Mabel Cooper

Mabel Cooper (1944-2013)
We are sad to announce that Mabel Cooper, a long standing member of the SHLD group and friend of the Open University, died on 22 March 2013. Mabel's life story became famous around the world after it appeared, to great acclaim, in SHLD's book Forgotten Lives (1997). She was a remarkable woman, inspirational and charismatic, but also generous and warm-hearted. She will be much missed by all her friends and colleagues. You can read Mabel's obituary here.

2013 Conference

Our 2013 Conference 'Avoiding more Winterborne views' will be held on 8th July 2013. Click here for details.

2012 Conference

The full two-day programme, audios and abstracts from the 2012 Conference are now available on the Annual Conferences page.

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Older news

Please click here to read archived news stories.