Our lives, our journey

Our lives, our journey is a pioneering research study, following the lives of disabled people in the UK over 5 years.

Disabled people tell us there are important moments of change during their lives that have a lot of influence. The support, interventions and decisions made at these important moments can have a significant effect on what happens next.

Our study focuses on 4 specific groups of people, each representing a different important moment of change:

• disabled people who have recently started a new job
• disabled children and their families
• disabled people who have recently acquired an impairment
• disabled people entering adulthood

Reports

Over the 5 year study, we will be publishing reports on the 4 important moments of change.

Starting a new job

The participants in this study told us about the positive and negative experiences they had starting a new job, and the influence that has had on their lives.

Starting a new job

Disabled children and their families

The participants in this study told us about the positive and negative experiences they had during:

• diagnosis
• getting support for their disabled child
• starting nursery and school

Disabled children and their families

Disabled young people

This study follows 18 disabled young people aged 16 to 21, as they adapt to life as an adult. Becoming or hoping to become more independent.

Transition to adulthood

We look at:

• positive and negative experiences
• the opportunities and barriers that help or hinder transition to adulthood

Transition to adulthood

Life journeys

In this report we revisit 15 disabled young people, 2 years after their first interviews.

We want to see what has changed since we first spoke to these individuals.

Some individuals want to stay anonymous. We have replaced these individuals with a letter to protect their identity.

We look at:

• living arrangements
• experience in education
• moving into employment

Life Journeys

Future reports

As we continue this research study, we will be publishing reports on the other important moments of change.

Coronavirus and the effect on disabled people's lives

Our lives, our journey offers the unique opportunity to capture the effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on our 4 participant groups and their lives.

Through this study, we can record disabled people’s lives before, during and after the pandemic.

The next report

Disabled people entering adulthood.