"Family Planning?" Exploring imaginaries of parenthood in young people with learning disabilities

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Parenthood can be understood as a choice and consequence of ordinary adulthood; itconfirms adult status and shapes self-image and identity. However whilst there is growingacknowledgement that young people with learning disabilities should be recognised assexual actors, questions regarding choices and desires for parenthood, remain underexploredwithin the academic literature.Medical and social visionaries of disability have deemed 'normativity' as a prized culturalstatus which appear to deny that young people with learning disabilities could or indeedshould be parents. Those that do become parents are a priori assumed to be incompetent,while for many young people with learning disabilities, parenthood remains unrealised,suggesting little more than a 'metaphorical' possibility.The aim of this research is to examine parenthood imaginaries in young people withlearning disabilities. It seeks to explore how they think about the possibilities ofparenthood, and to further understand how their familial and broader social worlds mayinfluence what they imagine. By combining different qualitative methodologicalapproaches, it aims to use a mosaic of accounts that create a space for young people withlearning disabilities to express their perspectives. The proposed techniques willsynthesise a range of approaches that draw on face-face semi-structured interviews andvideo diaries.