How do people with learning disability experience the city centre? A Sheffield case study

The use of city centre spaces by people with learning disability is not much debated in the literature. Here we include the thoughts and opinions of groups of people with learning disability as we undertook some guided walks through Sheffield city centre. We found that few of the participants had independent access to the city centre. Many cited concerns over personal safety and the most, on few occasions when they did visit, did so with family and/or paid staff for pre-planned purposes, usually linked to shopping. The need for appropriate support figured prominently. There is also a need to re-assess what we mean by social inclusion for this cohort.