About me

A photo of Steve, a white non-binary person in their late 30s, standing in a park with autumn trees behind them. Steve has long hair, dyed a purplish-red colour, and a short beard. They are wearing a purple coat with a red-and-black striped jumper underneath. Around their neck is a camera strap and a pendant with the transgender symbol on a black triangle.
A photo of Steve, a white non-binary person in their late 30s, standing in a park with autumn trees behind them. Steve has long hair, dyed a purplish-red colour, and a short beard. They are wearing a purple coat with a red-and-black striped jumper underneath. Around their neck is a camera strap and a pendant with the transgender symbol on a black triangle.

I am Steve Graby, the maker of this site! I am a researcher, writer and activist in the disabled people’s and co-operative movements, currently based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.

To find out more about my current research, see this page.

I completed my PhD in the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds in 2019. My thesis, “Personal Assistance: The Challenge of Autonomy”, is available to download here at White Rose eTheses Online.

I am a founder member of the workers’ co-operative TypeOlogy. We do audio transcription (of recorded interviews, podcasts, etc.), proofreading, video subtitling, audio recording of written materials, and live captioning for online events. If you need any of these (or potentially other similar services), you can email typeology.coop@gmail.com to get a quote.

I am a member of the Executive Board of Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP). I am also a member of Leeds Disabled People’s Organisation (LDPO) and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC).

I am neurodivergent (autistic and ADHD) and non-binary. (I don’t personally care which set of third-person pronouns anyone uses to refer to me, but this is very important to many other trans and non-binary people, so please don’t use my not-caring as a reason not to use the pronouns other people ask you to.)

Outside of my research and movement work, my interests include hillwalking, wildlife watching and photography, when the British weather allows!

Publications

Graby, S. (2021). Personal assistance Co-operatives: Possibilities and pitfalls of alternative models of independent living. Journal of Co-Operative Studies, 54(3), 33–44. (This paper is only available to members of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies until the end of June 2022, after which it will become open access, but contact me if you want to read it before then.)
Graby, S., & Homayoun, R. (2019). The crisis of local authority funding and its implications for independent living for disabled people in the United Kingdom. Disability & Society, 34(2), 320–325. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1547297
Graby, S., & Greenstein, A. (2016). Relational Autonomy and Disability: Beyond Normative Constructs and Post-structuralist Deconstructions. In R. Mallett, C.A. Ogden, & J. Slater (Eds.), Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane: Precarious Positions (pp. 228–259). University of Chester Press.
Graby, S. (2015a). Access to work or liberation from work? Disabled people, autonomy, and post-work politics. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 4(2), 132–161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v4i2.212
Graby, S. (2015b). Neurodiversity: Bridging the gap between the disabled people’s movement and the mental health system survivors’ movement. In H. Spandler, J. Anderson, & B. Sapey (Eds.), Madness, distress and the politics of disablement (pp. 231–244). Policy Press.

All these (and some other things like conference presentations) are also available to download from my academia.edu page.