Disabled Young People’s experience of Personal Support: Intimacies, identities and embodiments in Personal Assistance Relationships

Ned Coleman-Fountain University of Northumbria

Harvey Humphrey University of Strathclyde

Alex Toft Nottingham Centre for Children

This presentation will explore some themes from an ongoing project looking at young disabled adults’ experiences of getting support from Personal Assistants (PAs). PAs are social care workers employed directly by disabled people. They provide important support that enable disabled people to live independent lives. This project has asked young people with a range of different genders and sexualities about their experiences of choosing and working with PAs. This presentation will explore how gender and sexuality, understood in relation to identities and embodiments, matter for the decisions young LGBT people make to ensure they get the right support.

Ned Coleman-Fountain

(he/him)

Senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of Northumbria, where he is currently EDI lead in the Department of Social Sciences. His current research focuses on the intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality in the contexts of adult social care

Alex Toft

Research Fellow in the Nottingham Centre for Children, Young People and Families at Nottingham Trent University. His research focuses upon sexuality, gender, disability, spirituality and identity. He currently works with a Young Disabled LGBT+ Researchers Group exploring the lived experiences of young people who are autistic and LGBT+.

Harvey Humphrey

(they/them/their)

really likes poetry

creative flair

A poststructuralist sociologist

they really like language, discourse and bodies

they’re just a bit interdisciplinary

and into creative methodologies

On an ESRC postdoc fellowship

at the University of Strathclyde

making a play out of scholarship

writing poems on the side

The link to access this seminar will be emailed to all ticket holders prior to the start.