Professor Graeme Douglas

• PhD
• BSc.(Hons)

Graeme joined the School of Education, University of Birmingham, as a researcher in 1993 having completed his PhD in the area of individual differences in learning and computer-based presentation (also at Birmingham). Prior to this, he completed a degree in human psychology and computer science at Aston University.

Graeme has been the principal investigator and manager on many high-profile externally funded research projects in the area of vision impairment and SEN. He teaches research methods and supervises research students.

Graeme’s main teaching activities are in the area of research methods training for research students. He contributes to College of Social Science (CoSS) Postgraduate Research Training. His teaching particularly focuses upon methods of data collection and analysis and research design, as well as a particular interest in researching disability. He also supervises masters and doctoral research students working in the area of vision impairment in particular, and disability and SEN in general.

Graeme supervises and co-supervises ten research students. This includes Kubra Akbayrak who is exploring the training programmes of specialist teachers of children and young people with vision impairments in Turkey and England. 

For more information on research degrees, visit the Postgraduate Research pages.

Graeme has led many high profile research projects – including international literature reviews, large-scale surveys of the needs and circumstances of people with vision impairment, research into mobility and independence, the use of technology, and investigations into literacy. More recently, Graeme has worked closely with Rachel Hewett exploring the journeys of young people with vision impairment as they leave school and enter adulthood. The ‘Longitudinal Transitions Study’ has been working with a cohort of 80 young people for over eight years. Guided by these young people, the project is developing many practical guidelines and resources.

At the heart of Graeme’s work is collaboration with stakeholders: teachers, schools and services; policy makers; organisations for and of people with vision impairment; and, most importantly, people with vision impairment themselves.

The research of the Vison Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) was identified as having internationally outstanding (4*) impact in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.

Recent and current research grants include:

• Post-14 transitions: longitudinal study of from age 14 of blind and partially young people in the UK (RNIB, Nuffield, Thomas Pocklington Trust). Role: PI
• Measuring Educational Engagement, Progress and Outcomes for Children with Special Educational Needs: A Review (National Council for Special Education, Ireland).  Role: PI
• ENABLER: employment needs amongst blind and partially sighted job seekers (BLF, RNIB).  Role: PI.
• Network 1000 Phase 1 and Phase 2 – the circumstances and opinions of visually impaired people in Britain (Vision 2020 UK, BLF).  Role: PI.