The best place to be?
Disabled Children at Residential Schools

David Abbott, Researcher

Carl is a young disabled person at a residential school over 100 miles away from where his parents live. He remembers what he thought when someone told him he might be going to residential school:

“They just said to me that there was a school that I could be going to that most people, everyone there's got at least something a bit wrong with them, and first of all I thought I might not get on with people there, then I thought, I'm going to miss my friends as well.”

Ann attends a different residential school and told us about the best thing about being there. She described how at her mainstream primary school:

“I just used to drive around in the playground in my wheelchair and the other children never used to come over to me. If I went over to them they would just go away. I’ve got loads of friends at my new school.”

David Abbott, Jenny Morris and Linda Ward are researchers and we wanted to find out more about the experiences of disabled children and young people at residential schools.

You'll find more information about the research with this edition of Activate.

There is a 'Findings' and a 'Plain Facts' magazine about what we found. 'Plain Facts' aims to make the findings of research easier to understand. It is also available on tape cassette and we have 150 available for each BCODP member organisation. If you would like one please contact David Abbott at the Norah Fry Research Centre.

© Copyright British Council of Disabled People 2002