Sue Ledger

Contraceptive decision-making and women with learning disabilities

This article explores contraceptive decision-making for women with learning disabilities. It sets the historical context of reproductive control by highlighting former practices which overtly aimed to prevent women with learning disabilities from conceiving. This is contrasted with a current legislative framework that strongly endorses the human and reproductive rights of women with learning disabilities. The article presents findings from a small-scale, UK-based survey that invited third parties involved in supporting women with learning disabilities with contraceptive decision-making to share their views and experiences. The survey indicated apparent continuities in practice, showing that key decisions over contraceptive care are often made by other people and not by women themselves. The increasing evidence of a gap between policy and practice is explored; this suggests a need for further research, including studies to explore the experiences of women with high support needs where there may be particular issues in relation to the management of menstruation, decision-making and capacity to consent.

Between speaking out in public and being person-centred: collaboratively designing an inclusive archive of learning disability history

Abstract The Living Archive of Learning Disability History is being developed by an inclusive team of researchers both with and without learning disabilities. We argue the archive is important in making publicly visible the lives of people with learning disabilities. Yet – drawing on thinking that came out of our collaborative workshops – we also identify alternative imperatives, that you might want to have control over how you share your personal memories and stories, with whom, when you share them and for how long. We show how we are responding to these different ideas in the design of the Living Archive in order to create pathways between two traditions that have emerged through self-advocacy: ‘speaking out in public’ and ‘being person-centred’. We outline our research on consent processes to ensure that our archive builds capacity for as many people as possible to consent while also offering a legally compliant ‘Best Interests’ process in line with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act, England and Wales (2005). We argue that deploying and actively navigating between the different political logics of ‘speaking out in public’ and ‘being person-centred’ offers a way forward for ongoing debates concerning community engagement in archives, museums and heritage.