Disability Discrimination - history

[Mrs Lizzy]

Can anyone tell me how long people have been campaigning against disability discrimination please?  I'm doing a writing course and for my current assignment I interviewed a 99 year old lady yesterday. This lady contracted polio aged 5 (she is now in her 90s) and has had to wear callipers ever since.  She told me, quite matter of factly, "In those days, if you were disabled, you were nothing," and went on to explain that everyone assumed she would never be much good for anything, so she was pretty much written off.  She sat no exams, never had a job and worst of all, from her point of view, she never got married and had children.  It was just always assumed that in spite of being able to travel around on her own, on foot and on public transport, in spite of being fit enough to help her mother with her younger siblings, somehow she was not good enough to study, take an exam, or look after a family of her own.  Can you tell I'm a bit peeved?? 

I've been looking for some sort of history of disability discrimination to use as research for this and further writing and would be really grateful for any advice or input.

thanks,

Mrs Lizzy

[glenclare]

Hi

I found this by looking on Google Scholar. Not sure if it is what you mean but it might give you some leads.
https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/kowalsky.html

Glen

[Mrs Lizzy]

Thanks, glenclare, will have a look.   

[Lydart]

My mother was born 1907; she had club feet ... 30+ operations on them, in the days when the surgeons really didnt know how to treat them, and ended up with calipers all her life.   She didnt go to school until she was 11, as it was thought she'd never learn.  (Who learns with their feet ??  )  But being the daughter of a suffragist ( ! ), and although poor, she never lacked for anything; Granny fought for her all the way, and she was trained as a dressmaker (back then the assumption was that disabled people had not much ability) ... but due to her own determination she ended up a court dressmaker, making clothes for minor royalty and the famous (and infamous !) ... she married my father, also disabled as a child from polio, and together they took on the world. 

So although there was nothing provided by the state for such people, I knew a lot who did succeed, but only through their own will.   Mum used to say 'If you are disabled, you can't hope to be equal to the able bodied; you have to be better than them' !!

[Lady Di]

We complain about the smallest and pettiest of things these days and forget to see how the other half lived.

Disability discrimination has been around forever. It's how the disability is handled by the family and those around them that makes or breaks a person with a challenge. It's people like Lydart's parents who have survived and beaten the odds that I think are some of the most courageous. I take my hat off to your parents Lydart - well done them.

My mum's saying was "it's better to have tried and failed, than failed to try" -
and that probably applies to life in general anyway, not just for those with any type of (perceived) disability.

[Mrs Lizzy]

Thank you, Lydart and Lady Di - I am not sure how much difference this lady could have made if she had fought for her rights to an education, a job and I really doubt she would have felt able to actively look out for a husband.  Even yesterday, when I asked her why she had never married, she was surprised and answered "Who'd want me with a gammy leg??"  Even so, I think it's attitude that counts and it seems everyone around her, family, friends, acquaintances, all simply accepted that this was how it was going to be.  Just one person refusing to accept the status quo might have made a difference.   

[Lydart]

That's so sad ... I worked for a short while at Chailey Heritage ... where several of those disabled by thalidomide were ... my goodness, they had courage, but even then in the 60's, the emphasis was still on DISability, rather than ABility ! 

[Rena]

At first sight it does seem discrimatory but I think we've got our 21st century cap on.  I've got female relatives from that era and earlier in the 19th century who never married but they did have jobs, either as teachers or nurses.  For some reason there were always more girls survived to adulthood than boys I've heard it said. I wouldn't know if there were less boys born than girls in the 19th century but given that young boys and young male adults died at work from accidents on the farm or at sea, etc you'd be lucky if you found anyone to marry.  In the 20th century there were far less available men when the lady reached marriageable age due to deaths in WWI plus the millions of surviving soldiers who caught Spanish flu and died within 48 hours of catching it.

I can feel your indignation that the lady wasn't in paid work, but what will you think when I tell you that in 1955 my working class father asked me if I'd like to stay at home when I finished school to help my mother around the home.  Like every female child in that era I knew how to knit, sew, cook, etc and some of my friends would have jumped at the offer but as I was very progressive, went to grammar school, was in various sports teams I said thank you but no thank you.

As for formal education, my grandmother was born 1884 and had to take tuppence (2d) a day for her schooling.

[Mrs Lizzy]

Well spotted, Rena - I didn't think of that!