Our Life Stories is being brought to life through a series of exhibitions across the country.  

The Our Life Stories exhibition brings together a co-curated selection of real-life stories and objects from more than eighty people supported by United Response. Each item tells an individual story of everyday life, from personal achievements to the structural barriers faced by people with learning disabilities and autistic people. Together, they paint a picture of disability history in England over the past fifty years which until now has been sorely missed from historical record. 

The first event was held at York Guildhall from 5-8 February and welcomed over 350 attendees who immersed themselves in the audio interviews, video, photography and art that brought the stories to life. Scroll to the bottom for a video highlights reel of our time in York. 

MP Visit 

We were delighted to welcome MP Rachael Maskell to the exhibition, who met with some of the team and was able to spend time engaging with each element of the programme.  

Rachael Maskell MP says: 

“It was a joy to learn about the experiences of disabled people on such an extremely personal level. The work of United Response is extremely important and helps foster a sense of community for people with disabilities, both in York and beyond. It gave insights into different challenges and aspects of life for people with disabilities. 

“The presentation of the exhibition was excellent, giving comprehensive, personal accounts which culminated into a wide-ranging oral history project. The range of mixed media used made it accessible and interactive. It was a privilege to attend. I want to thank those involved for putting together such a beautiful oral history account, and thank you to United Response for the continuous, fantastic work they do.” 

Some more about Our Life Stories 

In 2023, a group of 20 people with learning disabilities and autistic people, received training in oral history methodologies over several months. The Interviewers from Richmond, York and Devon spent fifteen months interviewing their peers across England and collected 61 life stories, to be archived in the national collection at the British Library. 

Our Life Stories is the first peer-to-peer oral history project of this size and scale in the learning disabilities space. 

Projects like Our Life Stories are an important platform for sharing not only the personal achievements but also the structural barriers faced by people with learning disabilities. It highlights that there is still much work to do in not only advocating for and providing better health care, education and employment opportunities but also bridging the gap and shifting attitudes away from a disablist society to one with a shared determination to live life equally and fully for all. 

Our next exhibitions are in Nottingham between 12 and 14 February, Cornwall from 17 to 21 February London 26 to 28 February, and you can find out more about each, and register to attend at the following: Exhibitions – United Response 

Video highlights 

Check out this short video showing highlights of our exhibition in York. We’d love to see lots more people at the upcoming events, so please do come along if you can, to experience what people have told us is: 

  • “Such a powerful, important and heart-warming exhibition.” 
  • “Amazing, powerful and brave. Thank you so much for sharing.” 
  • “Powerful – a must see!”