Our growing group of academic members are providing us with up-to-date facts.

Having the facts will help us:

• uphold the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
• argue for fairer resources
• promote teaching and research that people with learning disabilities and their families value
• share research in ways that are accessible.

Our academics want to hear and understand the concerns of all of our members and work out how academics can best support them.

The LDE Academics

Katherine Runswick Cole 

Katherine is Professor of Critical Disability Studies & Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University.  She is passionate about disability studies, disability politics and campaigning for a society in which disabled people are seen as fully human  – with the access to full inclusion this implies. She is the mother of two young adults, one of whom has a learning disability.

How Katherine can help LDE: “I can help Learning Disability England to host events, and I can share research with you, as well as work with you to develop new ideas for research projects.”

Chris Hatton

Chris is an academic at the Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University, UK, and also currently a Co-Director of Improving Health and Lives, the Learning Disabilities Public Health Observatory, part of Public Health England. His research work over the past 25 years has mainly focused on people with learning disabilities, particularly around documenting the inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities and their families and evaluating policies and practices designed to reduce these inequalities.

Jan Walmsley

Jan is Visiting Professor in the History of Learning Disabilities at The Open University – probably the only one in the world. She has many publications, many of which relate to the history of learning disabilities. Jan currently runs (Jan Walmsley Associates) which specializes in teaching and research in health and social care.

Simon Duffy

Simon is the founder and Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform. He speaks regularly on television and radio about the welfare state and social policy. He is best known for inventing personal budgets and for designing systems of self-directed support. He works as a consultant and researcher with local social innovators and national governments.