Valerie Lang

Watch Valerie's "Speaking for ourselves" video on YouTube

"I’d never met these people before lunch. All the time they’d treated me like a rather clever four-year-old. With a beaming smile, the wife said to me, ‘You must come and see us in the summer, with your mummy and your daddy,’ and at the time, I suppose I was about 40. I was halfway through rather a good career, and they knew I’d been to university."
Valerie Lang MBE, Retired senior research officer, honorary life member of Scope, London

Born 29 August 1939
 
Educated St Margaret’s, Croydon; Welburn Hall, Kirbymoorside; Beckenham Technical Institute; NW Kent College of Advanced Technology, Dartford; London School of Economics and Political Science; University College London; Open University

Valerie Lang Tape 1 Listen here:
Born 29 August 1939 in Sale, Cheshire, four days before World War 2 was declared. Mother’s doctor was on holiday at time of Valerie’s birth. Long labour and forceps delivery, resulting in brain damage. First child... 00:31:20

Valerie Lang Tape 2 Listen here:
Valerie’s parents had to pay privately for physiotherapy and Valerie’s mother was not happy in Wales. Turbulent time for family. Very little known about cerebral palsy. Commonly thought it was not worth doing much... 00:31:24

Valerie Lang Tape 3 Listen here:
Discussion of special schools. In 1946 Valerie’s father left RAF and was home permanently. First day at St Margaret’s daunting. Joan Edwards was Valerie’s housemother. Children over six were taught in one big room... 00:31:19

Valerie Lang Tape 4 Listen here:
Parents refused to transfer Valerie to secondary school for children with cerebral palsy at Puckle Hill. Education in morning, afternoon devoted to horticulture and other practical subjects.... 00:31:21

Valerie Lang Tape 5 Listen here:
70 pupils at Welburn Hall. Classroom was a converted stable block. Valerie allowed to watch TV two evenings a week. Saturday afternoon film shows. Sunday School and church. Confirmation at 15. Anglican Church... 00:31:23

Valerie Lang Tape 6 Listen here:
Bertie [Berta] Bobath was Jewish and lived in Austria. Report of rumour that first husband was a Nazi and he had to choose between the Nazi party and his wife. She left for England and later married Dr Karl Bobath.... 00:31:20

Valerie Lang Tape 7 Listen here:
‘A’ levels in Economic History, British Constitution and Economics completed in one year. Decided to apply for university. Writer’s cramp. Valerie’s class friend Fred gave her carbon copy of his notes.... 00:31:20

Valerie Lang Tape 8 Listen here:
Studying at Dartford College. Friendships. Entering the London School of Economics at the age of 21. Friends including Christine Whitehead, now a professor at the LSE. Living at home in Beckenham... 00:30:59

Valerie Lang Tape 9 Listen here:
Third year of BSc Economics at LSE. Chess club. Anglican Society. The lasting importance of friendships made at LSE. Moving into Canterbury Hall of Residence. Changes in ways of coping. Using a tape recorder... 00:31:08

Valerie Lang Tape 10 Listen here:
Life in Canterbury Hall. Valerie’s discovery that she needed more help than she had realised. Favourable attitudes of fellow students. She felt accepted. Brief discussion of jealously encountered in later years.... 00:31:09

Valerie Lang Tape 11 Listen here:
Valerie’s feelings about her degree. Graduation ceremony in the Albert Hall attended by Queen Mother. VL interviewed by a writer from The Daily Express. September ’64 to September ’65 VL working as a student... 00:33:13

Valerie Lang Tape 12 Listen here:
One-year graduate diploma in librarianship at UCL (the Henry Morley Building). Describes study methods, friendships made, and considerable assistance received, particularly from Austen. Tape recorders.... 00:21:59

Valerie Lang Tape 13 Listen here:
Final details about the UCL course in Librarianship. Dinner at Post Office Tower. Harder to find paid work than university places. Job at Senate House Library in Russell Square. Cataloguing Harry Price’s library... 00:28:47

Valerie Lang Tape 14 Listen here:
Faceted classification of business studies at the London Business School. Methods of working. At Polytechnic of North London, VL became a research assistant to one of the readers. Moved into first flat in... 00:31:07

Valerie Lang Tape 15 Listen here:
Occupational Therapy department of The London Hospital helped with cooking meals. Mellaware crockery. Bobath Clinic. Hearing a recording of her voice triggered worst depression to date... 00:31:19

Valerie Lang Tape 16 Listen here:
Tavistock Clinic. Visited Miss Pat Hinton in Isleworth once a week for psychotherapy. Ways of coping with increasing effects of disability included having a ‘home-sharer’, and the use of pavement scooters... 00:19:07

Valerie Lang Tape 17 Listen here:
Friendship with Matthew, a university friend from LSE. Followed by reminiscences of father’s and mother’s lives and sister’s early years. Describes being offered an MBE... 00:26:03

Valerie Lang Tape 18 Listen here:
Describes the awarding of an MBE in June 1990 when VL was 51, and the ceremony at Buckingham Palace in November 1990. Chronology of temporary posts 1970-74: the Polytechnic of North London... 00:31:17

Valerie Lang Tape 19 Listen here:
Discusses the difficulties of finding work in the early years of career, and the attitudes of employers... 00:12:02

Valerie Lang Tape 20 Listen here:
Description of life in the YWCA Alexandra Club. Lists the mix of consultancies and temporary posts held 1972-74: Institute of Personnel Management, the London Business School, the International Publishing Corporation... 00:31:33

Valerie Lang Tape 21 Listen here:
Work in the CAA Library. Travelling to and from work on Routemaster buses – and occasionally falling off. The problem of how to deal with the shock experienced after falls. Learning to drive aged 43... 00:31:20

Valerie Lang Tape 22 Listen here:
Work much improved by the introduction of computers c1985. Open University course “The Handicapped Person in the Community” 1976. Attempts to gain promotion ending in success in 1979. Problems and successes... 00:31:17

Valerie Lang Tape 23 Listen here:
Describes work in CAA’s Economics Division, monitoring deregulation in America and Europe. Recounts instances of jealousy among a few colleagues. Describes the difficulty of making coffee... 00:31:20

Valerie Lang Tape 24 Listen here:
Discusses her view that librarianship was not suitable for a person with speech problems. Lead up to early retirement... 00:09:14

Valerie Lang Tape 25 Listen here:
Begins with Valerie’s retirement party, and the reasons for taking early retirement at the age of 58. Looks back over her 23 years at CAA, concluding that the CAA had been a good employer... 00:31:21

Valerie Lang Tape 26 Listen here:
Final days at the CAA and retirement... 00:03:24

Valerie Lang Tape 27 Listen here:
Valerie’s accommodation. Coming from a happy family home, and having spent her school years at boarding school and her later university career in a hall of residence, she wanted her own home by the time she was 30... 00:27:01

Valerie Lang Tape 28 Listen here:
Practicalities of living with a disability after the age of 50. For 20 years Valerie had lived alone (with help from friends) and had adopted a clothing style that was practical. At 50 she began to need more help... 00:21:28

Valerie Lang Tape 29 Listen here:
Valerie’s committee work, which she began long before she retired. She was first introduced to committee work at the Association of ’62 Clubs by Bill Hargreaves of the Spastics Society... 00:30:50

Valerie Lang Tape 30 Listen here:
Open University exam. The work of the Resources Committee, which was Valerie’s introduction to the Spastics Society itself. This led to her election on the governing body of the Spastics Society… 00:30:48

Valerie Lang Tape 31 Listen here:
Recounts instances of speaking in public, just using notes. In meetings where it can be difficult to catch a Chair’s eye, then Valerie finds it useful to find an ally to help her do so. … 00:23:57

Valerie Lang Tape 32 Listen here:
Valerie stood down from the Spastics Society’s Executive Council in November 1994, just after it had succeeded in changing the charity’s name to Scope. … 00:31:23

Valerie Lang Tape 33 Listen here:
Access better in the USA and in New Zealand. Committees including the Islington Patient and Public Forum (which replaced the Community Health Council); Mobility Choice… 00:29:44

Valerie Lang Tape 34 Listen here:
Election to the European Disability Forum (EDF) in 2005, representing CP-ECA, the European arm of the International Cerebral Palsy Society (ICPS). Speeches to ICPS Conferences.… 00:21:40

Valerie Lang Tape 35 Listen here:
Valerie’s religious experiences from the time she first came to London at the age of 17. The very low Church of her late teens, the Christian Union at Technical College, the Anglican Society at University 00:21:39

Valerie Lang Tape 36 Listen here:
Valerie ponders why she failed to gain acceptance on London Diocesan Synod. Church Action on Disability (CHAD). Effect of the DDA. Move to St James’, Prebend Street for theological reasons… 00:22:41

Valerie Lang Tape 37 Listen here:
Holidays. Valerie gained confidence in walking on a sandy beach while on holiday, probably in 1946. First solo trip by air in 1957 to stay with friends in Brussels. In 1975 Valerie flew to Montreal... 00:31:14

Valerie Lang Tape 38 Listen here:
Reactions of children to disability. Access in America. Riding on San Francisco’s cable cars. In general Valerie found flying easy, except for two occasions. Visited Syria and Jordan. Saw Petra and... 00:31:24

Valerie Lang Tape 39 Listen here:
Valerie’s first holiday in Venice with Austin. First use of a buggy – at first reluctant, but Valerie had to agree that it was successful. Coping with lots of steps and bridges, and the helpfulness of the… 00:30:29

Valerie Lang Tape 40 Listen here:
Talks about the years when she had confidence to travel alone by train or plane, to stay with friends at her destination. This confidence largely lost in later years after she broke an ankle… 00:10:35

Valerie Lang Tape 41 Listen here:
Continues discussion of problem which developed in her 50s and 60s. Increasing difficulty of picking up things she had dropped. Was able to train her dog to help. Now uses pavement scooters… 00:31:31

Valerie Lang Tape 42 Listen here:
Continues talking about her broken ankle in 2002, her use of a 'gutter frame' and learning again to walk without the frame. Moves on to a discussion of health and increasing disability in middle age… 00:31:26

Valerie Lang Tape 43 Listen here:
Valerie found she fell more often in middle age, with more serious consequences. Falls off buses and new fear of escalators. To avoid falling so often, she learned to drive a car, and began to walk… 00:31:19

Download a transcript of Valerie Lang's interview (PDF, 1.1MB)