Post-16 transitions for young disabled people

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Educational Pathways and Work Outcomes of Disabled Young People is a 3-year research project funded by The Leverhulme Trust. We are based in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Our aim is to explore the factors that lead to disability inequalities in educational and occupational attainment in England.

 There is increasing awareness surrounding the social barriers that prevent disabled young people from fulfilling their potential. Yet, the vast majority of existing research relies on information provided by parents and teachers. Disabled young people are rarely given a voice in research. This is due to long-standing assumptions about the ability of young people to take part in research studies and discuss their conditions/disabilities.

 Our project challenges this assumption. We want to hear young people’s views about their experiences of disability and schooling, and their plans and aspirations for the future. We aim to interview 60 young people twice over the course of our study. The first wave of (online) interviews will take place between April-June 2021, and the second wave approximately one year later.

Our study focuses on students in mainstream schools. We are looking for Year 11 students with autism, dyslexia, and/or cerebral palsy. While we would love to be able to include students with other conditions and learning difficulties in our study, the nature of our research means that we can only focus on these three groups for the time being.

 Our research team has substantial training and experience in interviewing young people with different conditions. All interviews will be tailored to the individual needs and preferences of participants and their families. For each completed interview, participants will receive a £20 Love-to-Shop voucher.

 We are very excited about this research and the opportunity to shed light on a different perspective to that of typical accounts of disability and SEN in the media.

We very much hope to hear from you, and we look forward to sharing our findings in the months to come.

 Should you want to take part and/or discuss more, please get in touch with Dr Angharad Butler-Rees at disabled.transitions@warwick.ac.uk