Tuesday 23 March 2010

Preface: The Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) distributes money raised by the National Lottery to heritage projects throughout the UK. These projects include multi-million-pound investments in well-known buildings and sites like Birmingham Town Hall and Hadrian’s Wall, and also smaller grants making a big difference to communities and community groups such as the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre.

One of our strategic aims is “to help more people and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about their heritage”. This includes helping disabled people themselves and disabled people’s organisations to make grant applications. It was, therefore, with great pleasure that HLF was able to fund the project which has resulted in this book.

The history and heritage of disabled people and disabled people’s organisations has for too long been a ‘hidden history’, but in recent years, with HLF funding, many disability organisations have been able to research, record and share their unique heritage with a wider audience. Much of this has been possible using oral history techniques with the recordings being held as a permanent record in archives and libraries for present and future generations to learn from.

An important aspect of these histories is how disabled people themselves have influenced and brought about changes in society’s attitudes towards disability, leading to disabled people gaining equality of access and the inclusion in society enjoyed by non-disabled people.

The Birmingham Disability Resource Centre’s project not only ensured that disabled people took an active part in exploring their own heritage, but also has highlighted the active role disabled people have played in influencing attitudinal change.



Heritage Lottery Fund

March 2010

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