Jan Walmsley, Editor ftszerkesztobizottsag@gmail.com The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom |
Jan began working in the field of intellectual disability in 1985, helping to develop a course aimed at enhancing communication between staff and families. Called Mental Handicap: Patterns for Living, it reached more than 30,000 people. However, soon after its launch, they were challenged to include people with intellectual disabilities as students in this course, leading to the development of a more accessible version based on audio drama. This set her on the path of working alongside people with intellectual disabilities in teaching and research. She coined the term ‘inclusive research’ in 2001 and published a book on the subject with Kelley Johnson in 2003. This has been highly influential, and the idea of inclusive research has reached many countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, and Japan.
Alongside inclusive research, she is interested in the history of intellectual disabilities, and recently published an edited book bringing together the history in 14 countries, including Hungary. Since 2025, Anna has been a member of the editorial board of the Hungarian Journal of Disability Studies and Special Education. |