In our most recent Meet the Respondent post we meet new recruit Chloe Hocking. Chloe is co-authoring a chapter with Nicholas Clarke and Nell Munro.

My name is Chloe Hocking

I am from England

My 7 word autobiography is: full-time student – part-time fitness fanatic/crafter/baker

I have experience of carrying out research which explores the experiences of autistic individuals in police custody. My PhD focuses on learning more about the difficulties autistic individuals may experience in police custody and understanding the ways they could be supported in this setting. I am particularly interested in how the law under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 operates and whether legal reform is needed to satisfy the wider obligations towards disabled people under the Equality Act 2010 and CRPD.

I joined the VOICES project because I wanted to work together with disabled individuals to learn more about their experiences of the law and identify ways of how the law could be changed to improve the ways they are support by the legal system.

What was your favourite part of the working on the project? My favourite part of working on the project was working with Nick and learning more about his story. It was a really interesting experience working together to create a narrative that reflected Nick’s experiences and emphasised the importance of listening to disabled people’s voices.

What are you hoping to learn from the project? I am hoping to learn more about the ways that we can listen to the voices of disabled individuals and how the law could be used to ensure that this happens in a range of different contexts. I am interested to learn about the overlaps between different areas and how this affects the approaches we take to supporting disabled people.