By and for those with disabilities

Edis Bevan

The Open University in Milton Keynes, in conjunction with the organisation Disabled Persons International, has set up a research centre run by and for disabled people. The aim of the centre is to encourage and support research by the disabled into topics that they themselves feel to be of importance, and particularly into the many difficulties placed on people with disabilities in relating to a world designed exclusively for the able-bodied.

'The aim of the centre is to encourage and support research by the disabled into topics that they themselves feel to be of importance, particularly into the difficulties in relating to a world designed for the able-bodied'

The hope is that a major part of their work will be to direct research towards social inventions as opposed to technical fixes through hardware aids. Disabled people too often live in information ghettos. They are in contact with immediate family and with diverse experts on their 'conditions' but they are peripheral to the information cores that sustain power and influence in society and help determine the distribution of resources. They suffer from 'Information Disability'. It is important that new patterns of information exchange be built up to break the walls of the ghettos.

The Centre is seeking information for its database on existing research efforts by disabled people and on organisations controlled by the disabled around the world.

Edis Bevan, Disabled Persons International Research Centre, Gardner Building, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA (tel 0908 653231).

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