Disability Voices

Long description:

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Oral history interviews that chart the experiences of disabled people.

Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past.  The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective.  The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.

The British Library has an active policy to ensure the views and memories of people of every background, culture and occupation are represented. The British Library's Sound Archive holds a number of oral history collections derived from collaborative oral history projects which chart the experiences of disabled people, both old and young. The interviews available under the 'Disability Voices' package are from a number of collections. We hope to add more collections to the package in the future.

‘Speaking for Ourselves: An Oral History of People with Cerebral Palsy’ (British Library Sound Archive catalogue no: C1134) was a two-year partnership project run in 2004 and 2005, led by UK disability charity Scope and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which trained sixteen disabled volunteer interviewers to record life story interviews. The final collection includes 36 life story interviews with people with cerebral palsy over the age of 50.

‘Unheard Voices: Interviews With Deafened People’ (catalogue no: C1345) was conducted in 2008 and 2009 by Hearing Concern LINK, now Hearing Link, a charity that provides information and support for those with hearing loss and their family members. The project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Sixteen volunteer interviewers from the deafened community were trained to interview other members of the community. The interviews were audio recorded and supported by a Speech to Text Reporter, who provided a live text version of the conversation on a monitor.

Between 2011 and 2013 the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) co-ordinated a project to record oral histories of disabled people’s experiences of education in England, called 'How Was School?'. The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Ten volunteer interviewers, all of whom are disabled, were trained in oral history interviewing techniques. The resulting collection of fifty interviews has been archived at the British Library as ‘Oral Histories of Disabled People's Experience of Education’ (catalogue no: C1559).  The interviews with Phillip Wyatt (C1559/11) and Paul Harrison (C1559/47) are available to view as streaming video at the British Library only.  To access the two video interviews please contact the Library's Listening and Viewing Service (listening@bl.uk)

Paralympians Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Danny Crates were interviewed for the project ‘An Oral History of British Athletics’ (catalogue no: C790), a rolling programme of life story interviews with British athletes which started in 1996.

Geoff Webb's self-recorded reflections were intended to be the basis for an autobiography. As a result of polio Geoff Webb was paralysed and on a positive pressure respirator and this dictated the manner in which he spoke his testimony. He was sometime editor of 'The Responaut', a magazine for the community of people in this position. This recording was made shortly before his death from cancer. As an audio autobiography it contrasts with other elements in this package.

Oral history at the British Library

The interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain. Other oral history disability collections at the British Library can be found on the ‘Personal health, mental health and disability’ collections page. All oral history recordings are catalogued on the Sound Archive catalogue.

What the interviews tell us

One-to-one oral history interviews explore memories and narratives rarely found elsewhere. First-hand personal testimony fills knowledge gaps, provides new insights, challenges stereotypical views, and overturns orthodoxies. These recordings reveal collective memory, individual agency, gender, skill, influence and intentionality. Shifting family, work, health and educational trends and debates emerge alongside the impact of changing technologies, belief structures and political contexts. Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.

Ethical use of oral history

The interviewees have been generous in sharing their memories - often traumatic, confidential and intimate - and listeners are asked to treat this material with respect and sensitivity. Recordings should be analysed and presented in context, so that the interviewee’s meaning is not misconstrued. Quotations and audio clips should be referenced as, for example: 'Interview with Tanni Grey-Thompson by Rachel Cutler, 11 February 2004, An Oral History of British Athletics, reference C790/34/01-02, British Library'.

Each interviewee whose recording appears on this site has given their consent for the recording to be used for educational study. We have made every effort to contact all the interviewees and inform them about this project. However should any participant wish to discuss their involvement they should contact the Curator for Oral History at the British Library (oralhistory@bl.uk). As copyright ownership varies across the collections any use in publication or broadcast should be referred to the Curator (oralhistory@bl.uk).

All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.