‘I’ For Identity: Reflections on Ageing with a Disability

Diane began her career at Keele in 1998 as a mature student after over two decades in the finance industry. She is currently employed as the Research Assistant on a project commissioned by the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) for whom the university is writing a series of Research Briefings for web and print publication. Her personal research interests stem from many years of trade union activity on equality issues and are currently centred around work, ageing and disability. Undergraduate empirical work considered peer attitude to disability in the workplace while the masters supplemented that with work on the production of disability legislation by looking at the UK and Sweden . The PhD thesis which is now nearing completion builds on the ideas which came from both of these and considers aspects of ‘ordinary lives’ and ageing over the life course. This is viewed as a process rather than a stage of ‘being old’, and has been framed by examining the working-life experiences of people with long-term disabilities as they reach mid-life.