Dr Sonali Shah is an academic researcher in the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds. This book is the result of a three-year New Career Development Fellowship she was awarded by the Nuffield Foundation. Mark Priestley is Professor of Disability Policy and Director of the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds. He is currently Scientific Director of the European Commission's Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED).

"One of the best offerings in this field." Journal of Social Policy

• Introduction; Disability and social change; Researching lives, telling stories; Family and friendship; Medicalisation and de-medicalisation; Education; Employment; Becoming 'disabled'; The past, the present and the future