Disability and inclusion: Further sources

The University’s Special Collections are available to all students in the University. The collections include rare books, manuscripts, records, letters, photographs, maps and drawings. Use the search box below to find specific items on the Enterprise catalogue.

The Special Collections Service is based on the London Road campus, in the same building as the Museum of English Rural Life. Items from the Special Collections cannot be borrowed, but they can be consulted in the reading room. You’re advised to plan ahead and contact Special Collections prior to your visit, so that we can have the material ready for you for when you arrive.

Disability specific items in our collections and archives

There are a few items within the archive and rare book collections that relate to the subject of disability, such as correspondence and certificates relating to the employment of agricultural workers, photographs of disabled people and projects for disabled people in The MERL Archive, and correspondence about publications regarding disability in the Archive for British Printing and Publishing. Some examples are:

• Correspondence file relating to Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for the Disabled dated 1961-1970 in the National Union of Agricultural Workers Archive (SR 2NUAW B/XVI/76)
• Certificate for the National Scheme for the Employment of Disabled Men [World War II] dated 1941 in the Milk Marketing Board Archive (SR MMB SP5/2)
• File of photographic prints of blind and disabled people in the Farmers’ Weekly Photographic Collection dated 1960-1988 (P 3FW PH2/2193)
• Photographs, negatives and slides relating to Work projects for disabled people dated 1980s-1990s in the Countryside Agency Archive (SR 2RDC PHA/19)
• Colour slides of Wisley, garden for the disabled, in the Clifford Tandy Photographic Collection (P TAN PH5/7.2/14+15)
• Correspondence and reader’s report regarding the publication of “Disabled citizens” by Joan Simeon Clarke by Allen & Unwin in 1951 (AUC 495/5, AURR 18/3/25)

If you would like to make use of the University's Special Collections for your dissertation research, a good place to start would be the Subject Explorer guides. This guide has been created to help you make use of the University of Reading Special Collections in your dissertation.

Reading University theses and dissertations

The Library receives a copy of all theses accepted for the degrees of PhD and MPhil by the University. All theses held by the Library can be found on the Enterprise catalogue. Recently submitted theses might also be available to download from the University's Institutional Repository, CentAUR.

Masters theses can usually be consulted in the relevant school or department.

Finding theses from other institutions

There are a number of specialist sources for finding theses produced at other institutions around the world. Many more are becoming available online making it much easier to get the full-text. For more information see our guide to finding theses.

See our guide to finding theses for more information:

As a member of the University of Reading you can usually use other academic libraries. However, if you want to consult another Library's collections please contact the Library concerned before making a special journey.

You can identify some UK research and University libraries by looking at the list of libraries contributing to the Library Hub Discover service:

We are members of two SCONUL schemes which enable you to access many other UK HE libraries. In some cases you may be able to borrow.

For more information see our guide to using other libraries:

Research publications in CentAUR

The University of Reading's institutional repository for research publications has a range of disability-related material. These are just a few examples. For more, search CentAUR:

• Prizeman, K., McCabe, C. and Weinstein, N. (2024) Stigma and its impact on disclosure and mental health secrecy in young people with clinical depression symptoms: a qualitative analysis. PLoS ONE, 19 (1). e0296221. ISSN 1932-6203
• Dubey, I. , Bishain, R., Dasgupta, J. , Bhavnani, S., Belmonte, M. K., Gliga, T., Mukherjee, D., Lockwood Estrin, G., Johnson, M. H., Chandran, S., Patel, V., Gulati, S., Divan, G. and Chakrabarti, B. (2023) Using mobile health technology to assess childhood autism in low-resource community settings in India: an innovation to address the detection gap. Autism. ISSN 1461-7005
• Halldorsson, B., Waite, P. , Harvey, K. , Pearcey, S. and Creswell, C. (2023) In the moment social experiences and perceptions of children with social anxiety disorder: a qualitative study. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62 (1). pp. 53-69. ISSN 0144-6657
• Hazir, O.  and Harris, R.  (2023) To what extent does distance learning support the development of positive attitudes towards inclusive education: a comparison of primary education trainee teachers in England and Türkiye? European Journal of Special Needs Education. ISSN 1469-591X
• Hewitt, O., Codd, J. , Maguire, K. , Balendra, M. and Tariq, S. (2023) A mixed methods evaluation of a compassion‐focused therapy group intervention for people with an intellectual disability. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51 (4). pp. 522-533. ISSN 1468-3156
• Johnston, A. (2023) Evaluating the impact of a skills-based intervention on the readiness of generalist teachers in a special school to teach music. EdD thesis, University of Reading
• Moys, J.-L., Hwang, F., Marsili, U., Nunes, R., Tagg, A. and Vasilikou, C.  (2023) The inclusive way’ hackathon – inclusive wayfinding and pedagogy. InfoDesign : Brazilian Journal of Information Design, 20 (2). ISSN 1808-5377
• Pagnamenta, E., Hodgkinson, P., Davidson, R. and Joffe, V. L. (2023) The impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on children and young people with Down Syndrome in the United Kingdom. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. 1175636. ISSN 1664-1078
• Tillotson, J., Laker, B.  Pereira, V. and Bhatnagar, K. (2023) How to make workplaces more inclusive for people with invisible disabilities. Harvard Business Review. ISSN 0017-8012 
• Jayes, M., Borrett, S. and Bose, A. (2022) Mental capacity legislation and communication disability: a cross-sectional survey exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of specialist decision-making support by UK SLTs. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 57 (1). pp. 172-181. ISSN 1368-2822 
• Adams, G. and Salomons, T. V. (2021) Attending work with chronic pain is associated with higher levels of psychosocial stress. Canadian Journal of Pain. ISSN 2474-0527 
• Morris-Bankole, H. and Ho, A. (2021) The COVID-19 pandemic experience in multiple sclerosis: the good, the bad and the neutral. Neurology and Therapy. ISSN 2193-8253
• Armitage, S., Parkinson, M., Halligan, S. and Reynolds, S. (2020) Mothers’ experiences of having an adolescent child with depression: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29 (6). pp. 1617-1629. ISSN 1573-2843
• Bestbier, L. and Williams, T. (2017) The immediate effects of deep pressure on young people with autism and severe intellectual difficulties: a case series demonstrating individual differences. Occupational therapy international, 2017. 7534972,. ISSN 1557-0703
• Cage, E., James, A., Newell, V. and Lucas, R. (2021) Expectations and experiences of the transition out of university for students with mental health conditions. European Journal of Higher Education. ISSN 2156-8235 
• Keyes, C., Nolte, L. and Williams, T. I. (2018) The battle of living with obsessive compulsive disorder: a qualitative study of young people's experiences. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 23 (3). pp. 177-184. ISSN 1475-3588 

Our Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).

For more information see our webpages: