Speaking For Ourselves

Speaking For Ourselves

Disabled volunteers interviewing people with cerebral palsy
Disabled volunteers interviewing people with cerebral palsy

Heritage Grants

Holloway
Islington
Scope
£185000
"Having cerebral palsy myself, I feel tremendously motivated and inspired by such a socially and historically important project."
Volunteer coordinator
Disabled volunteers captured the life histories of people with cerebral palsy to show how society's perception of disability changed during the 20th century.

Scope is a charity that provides services to disabled people, and works to raise awareness of the issues they face and influence change across society. It provides support, advice and information for more than 250,000 disabled people and their families every year.

Many communities in the UK have recorded their own histories for the public record, but a notable absence was people with cerebral palsy. Scope aimed to rectify this by creating opportunities for disabled people to tell their own stories.

Disabled volunteers were trained in oral history techniques and interviewed older people with cerebral palsy. The project created audio and video recordings, which were accepted into the National Sound Archive. A teaching pack for secondary schools and a website were also produced. 

The project resulted in a lasting record of the experiences of people with cerebral palsy. This provides insights into how attitudes towards disability changed over the decades, and how people with disabilities still face barriers to equality.