Disability history: might we be about to see the return of a bad old idea?

Disclaimer

by David Bennett, Assistant Librarian (Promotions)

This post and its contents are solely the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University.

From leper chapels built in the 1100s to protests over accessibility in the 1980s, the heritage around us is linked inextricably to the stories of disabled people, some hidden and some well-known. Sadly, people throughout history have been valued for their economic potential rather than their intrinsic worth, and those disabled by a society unwilling to accommodate their diverse needs have found themselves subsequently disadvantaged, marginalised, silenced, and variously shut away, abandoned to look after themselves, or at times systematically targeted for extermination. Pending changes in UK law would weaken the legal basis for the preservation of all human life and have been heralded as a potential first step in a return to eugenics.

The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, attitudes to disability were mixed, some viewing disability as divine punishment, while others saw the disabled as suffering purgatory - the necessary purging of sin in preparation for the final judgement and admission into heaven - on Earth rather than after death and would therefore get to heaven sooner.

As for all those who were sick or poor, family and attending monks and nuns were the only source of care for those born disabled or who developed disabilities as a result of illness, injury, age, accident or simply being overworked. Records suggest such comforts dolled out were often meagre indeed.

Tudor England

The dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII allowed the king to enrich himself at the same time undermining the social security system of the time. Thomas Cromwell, who directed the Dissolution was instrumental in setting up the first state sponsored social security programmes. This marginalisation of religious institutions and secularisation of state support for the needy and destitute marked the origins of the welfare state. Caring for disabled people moved from being a religious to a civic duty.

Almshouses were built to house the 'deserving poor' - the elderly and disabled who had struggled to provide for themselves all their lives but were no longer able. Specialised hospitals were developed for the physically disabled, while others found themselves shut away in asylums where they would not trouble society at large.

The Poor Law was introduced to cruelly persecute anyone the courts deemed lazy and capable of work and to provide basic living support to those who were obviously disabled and who could not support themselves.

18th century

Asylums spread under the belief that healthy, clean institutions separate from society would be places where the disabled and mentally ill would thrive. This myth succeeded the earlier myths of or astrological or divine providence but was equally unhelpful.

As before, depending on how severely a disability impacted a person's life and livelihood, they might be distinguished artisans and tradesmen or beggars.

19th century

The Victorian Era saw a boom in the construction of institutions designed to contain the destitute away from decent society, as if poverty and, worse, the inability to work, might be contagious. Pauper lunatic asylums and union workhouses sprang up like weeds as the Poor Law was reformed to penalise those perceived to be benefits scroungers. Families were deliberately separated and the spirit of those confined within broken. Anyone able to avoid them did so, and so the disabled and mentally ill became the victims of the industrialisation of social care.

Some still lived in their communities, special schools were built, while charities and self-help groups were founded to assist disabled people to live independent lives.

20th century

The Eugenics movements arising in the 20th century drew on the medical model that human beings are biological machines and that disabled people are inherently defective, to suggest that society should purge itself of those who they deemed disabled or deficient. This ignored the ways in which society disables so many of its citizens by designing everything for the benefit of those few with power. This drive to 'perfect' humanity through artificial selection led to such atrocities as the extermination of disabled people in Nazi occupied territories under expanding euthanasia laws.

At the same time, two world wars forced the development of increasingly sophisticated prosthetics and plastic surgery techniques as well as physiotherapy, psychiatric medication and other therapies to support returning soldiers who had suffered physical and mental injuries.

But just as society made progress in some areas, it regressed in others, increasingly shunting those with disabilities from birth off to rural colonies where they were segregated by sex, age and ability, put to work and denied the right to raise families or a meaningful social life. Disabled children were raised for menial employment and taught not to expect much from life. Underfunding of mental health programmes has meant these early programmes were themselves replaced with little more than empty promises of care as the mentally unwell are now left largely untreated until such time they trouble wider society.

The 1944 Disability Employment Act (now largely superceded) was one of the first UK laws to protect the rights of disabled people , serving to reserve occupations for disabled people returning wounded from the Second World War. The age of the asylum also finally ground to an end, giving way to more progressive care in the community programmes, effectively marking society coming full circle to the original medieval model of families and social institutions caring for those disabled by society.

Modern times

The dominant medical view of disability, as shown in the term we still use, remains focused on perceived individual deficiencies rather than the ways in which our society enables some and severely disadvantages others with different needs.

The charity UK Disability History Month appears convinced that the assisted suicide legislation making its way through Parliament amid a right-wing direction of travel in contemporary political and populist thinking heralds a potential return of the eugenics movement and a challenge to the universal right to life. Marginalised and largely erased from the History of medicine and disability itself, despite scholar activists, activists today still tell tales of doctors dismissing any possibility of them growing up to enjoy the full lives they have done, all of which gives credence to concerns that many still believe those society has labelled as severely disabled would be better off dead.

The myths we live by can be dangerous.

Pause to ponder

You might have noticed that history is not linear.

Thinking comes full circle. Old ideas are repurposed for later ages. Not all new-old ideas are good ones.

Disabled people are telling the world in no uncertain terms that they fear changing legislation could undermine the universal right to life and endanger all those marginalised by society. As a society, we have a moral duty - individually and collectively - to ensure that never happens.