Katherine is Senior Research Fellow in Disability Studies and Psychology at the Research Institute for Health and Social Change, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is also the mother of a young person who has been labelled with learning disabilities. Much of Katherine's research has focused on the lives of disabled children, young people and their families and she has published extensively in the area. Katherine is currently working with university and third sector partners on the Economic and Social Research Council Funded project: "Big Society? Disabled people with learning disabilities and civil society" (www.bigsocietydis.wordpress.com). The project broadly asks how people with learning disabilities are faring in a time of austerity.