Rapid Evidence Assessments for the Office of Disability Issues

This project was funded by a grant from the UK Government Office for Disability Issues Framework Programme. The purpose of the project was to assist and advise the Office of Disability Issues (ODI) in building an evidence base to inform policy development towards key strategic equality goals.

The focus of the reviews was on the ODI-defined themes of ‘choice and control’ and ‘access to goods and services’, in support of the Government’s independent living strategy. The methods included systematic searches and engagement of external stakeholders to identify examples of disability research contributing value to UK policy development. The resulting synthesis reports were published on the ODI and CDS websites.

The research team includes Mark Priestley, Sarah Woodin and Mark Monaghan (Sociology and Social Policy) and Bryan Matthews (Transport Studies).

Summary

Using selective reviews of published evidence the project sought to identify disability research that answers a range of important questions. What does ‘choice and control’ mean to disabled people? What are the issues that disabled people say are important to them in terms of improving choice and control? What drivers would have the biggest impact in improving disabled people’s overall choice and control, particularly in respect of the equipment and assistance they receive? What services are most important to disabled people? What kinds of difficulties or barriers do disabled people face in accessing them? What improvements would make access to these services easier both in terms of physical access and other barriers, for example attitudinal?