disability Vol 8 No 3 studies Summer 1988 quarterly Irving Kenneth.Zola Managing Edi.tor: Joanne Seiden DEAR READER, We are ·particularly FOCUS pleased with this issue because Needs and Opportunities: it represents a theme directly The History of People suggested by our readership. with Disabilities: , As you can see, many people have a lot to say _about by Paul K. Longmore H~storical Aspects of Dis- (historian, 1437-Avenue 47 #7; ability, and like the previous Los Angeles, CA 90042) issue on Self Help and Indepen- dent Living, we have had some· Social scientists have / stimulating editorial thoughts. been reconceptualizing· "dis- The Fall 1988 DSQ (dead- ability" as primarily a line September 1) will em- socially constructed. condi- phasize School-Age Children and tion, a social ~ole and themes such.as "mainstreaming." identity, rather than a series The Winter 1989 issue (deadline of medical phenomeha. Despite December 1) will be a generic considerable differences in one. Spring 1989 - (deadline etiology, people with a March 1) will deal with variety of disabilities have "accounts of the experience of shared a common social _· and chronic illness and dis- historical experience and have ability." In the pipeline confronted· a common set of are topics dealing with stigmatizing values. Yet "communication technology," little has been written about "religion and spirituality," the history of people with _and "sexuality." Some readers disabilities. ; -~ have suggested that it is time We need a comprehensive to do another issue on "aging examination of the social, and disability" ·and "media ideological, and political depictions." Please let us history of disabled people. know. And, to a·11 those who On one level, that, study have been sending us material should look at how policies, for these issues, a hearty institutional practices, and thanks! professiorial ideologies reflected and reinforced The Editors social values about disability. and prescribed disabled 1 persons' social roles. the triumph of . oralism coin- · It is probable that in the cided with intensified· '.pias. ·18th· century a majo~. shift in . against people with other beliefs about. "disal;,ility" and disabilities. By the late in societal responses to people 19th century, non-disabled with disabilities began in professionals had concluded. western Europe as one aspect of that the required degree of the age of enlightenment and normalization was impossible .. revolution. · Schools, institu- . for all but a few. People tions, ·and professions began to with disabiiities,increasingly be established to ameliorate came to be regarded as a not only their medical but also burden to themselves and their their social condition. Early families, an unproductive 19th century American reformers element of society, a drain on followed their lead. Schools, social resources. .societies, and professions "Expertsl' not only. ·proliferated to deal with adopted, but· promoted, a people with disabilities. pseudoscientific linkage Ultimately, ·their aim was to between disability and a wide "normalize" or control these range of social problems. The socially deviant groups. · statement quoted above at- . For instance, Harlan Lane tributing to deaf people a has recounted the paternalistic lack of moral or emotional assumptions of many 19th self-control expressed that century hearing "benefactors" bias. Other professionals of · deaf people. During the spoke of the "menace of the 1880s and. 1890s the .struggle feeble-minded," blaming them between oralism and sign for poverty, vice, and crime•. language became particularly· Likewise, an .influential ferocious, exposing the textbook in orthopedic virulence ·of prejudice against medicine had this.to say about deaf.people. Said one oralist: physically disabled people: "A "The deat-mute is by nature failur·e in the moral training fickle or improvident, subject of a cripple· mean~ the to idleness, drunkenness, and evolution of an individual debauchery, easily duped and detestable in character, a readily corrupted." Deaf menace and burden to. the .groups protested the assault on community, who is oniy too apt their language in vain. One to graduate .into the mendicant . opponent of sign asked: "Since and criminal classes." when do. we consult the patient Since normalization of on the nature of his treat- most disabled people proved to ment?" By 1900 the oralists be impossible, society must had triumphed throughout the protect itself by segregating western world. Schools purged all of the "defective", deaf teachers. Students were classes. Some were permanent- punished for signing. Worse, ly sequestered in institu- they were taught t9 feel tions. Others were shut out ashamed of being deaf. of society by means. of such Academic instruction gave way ordinances as Chicago's "ugly" to teaching speech. law which prohibited any The prejudice that lead to "person who is diseased, 2 . maimed, mutilated, or . in any Pennsylvania. Because of ·the way deformed so. as to be . an novelty of a. blind . peddler, unsightly or disgusting object ·customers initially bought· his or improp~r person to be goods, but .on his subsequent allowed in or on the public trips he frequently en~ ways or other public places in countered the view that he _this city"· _from e~posing should go on poor relief "himself to public view.II More rather -than 'trying to support disturbing, eugenicists lobbied hims~lf. His pamphlet '.fo~ state laws compelling attempted to counter that ·' sterilization of· deaf· people, attitude and to promote · blirtd people~ peo~le with education of blind people. developmental and other Courtney also sought out other disabilities. By 1931, more · blind· people and reported on than half of the U.S. had their activities and occupa- . adopted sterilization statutes - tions. His tract . offers. a . affecting some of· these groups. glimpse of a ' segment .of tne Professionals even suggested social landsca~e virtually that keeping some disabled unknown to historians. p•ople alive violated the laws Example #2: ·contrary. to and · processes· of nature which the intentions of hearing worked to weed 'out the unfit. · philanthropists, the graduates Proposals for euthanasia failed of 19th century manualist in the u. s. , -·· but· · iri Nazi schools created for themsel~es Germany tens of thousands of a signing· subculture with its disabled people' were~ put to own schools,· churches, newspa- death. pers, and political organiza- We need a ~horough tions. D~af leaders in France · expiotation· ~f this socio- and America debated proposals . political and ideological to establish separatist d~af history of disability~ But townships in order to ·escap.e that research must focus not hearing oppression once and only on the ittitudes and for all. Subsequently, · 'the . practices ~f th~ majorit~ of National Association of the nonpisabled people,· it must· Deaf was founded in the u. S. als.o recount the ways in which to safeguard sign language an<i people with disabilities-define the .signing community from thems~lves, the sociai roles oralist assaults. and identities they attempt to Example #3t In. the create for themselves, their 1930's, New York City's League · efforts to reshape societal of th~ Physically Haridicapped, perceptions· of. them. ·Three an organization of disabled brief examples suggest the· .young adults, protested job possibilities for·this sort of discrimination in the munici- history. · pal· government and 'federal Example #1: Abram · Court- Works Progress Administration ney's Anecdotes of the Blind projects. (1835) recounted his adjustment.· Courtney, the . deaf · to complete · blindness in his groups, and the . League · ·. were teens and twenties·. He became all attempting to fashion a a peddl~r who travelled through new social identity. They upstate New. York, Ohio·, . and were redefining "disability" 3 as: a social, economic, and even the Hidc,len ·History of ·Dis.abled · . political· condition, rather People," Reviews in American than simply a medical· or History. 15:3, September 1988, physical phenomenon. · As with pp. 355-364. other minorities, we tend to Lane, Harlan. When the Mind see disabled people as passive Hears: A History of the Deaf. ·victims of fate or history. New Yo+k, · NY: Random· :Hous·e, ·. These.. examples indicate the 1985. importance of examining ways in. Tyor, Peter ,and Bell, Leland. which, individually or collec- caring· for the Retarded· in tively, they have been actors America: A History. Westport, in their. own history·. CT: Greenwood Press, 1984. · All of ·this represents a · vast and neglected nistory involving major changes in ~ocial · values and practices. COMING EVENTS We need to examine the inter- section of individual lives and A. July 11-22, 1988, 4th grogp histories with social ·Annual summer Series on Aging values and ideologies. How of the American soeiety on have values and ideologies Aging, Berkeley· Conference sh~ped the in~ividual and center,_ Berkeley, CA. 74 full- collective social careers of and half-day intensives in the people with disabilities? How following areas.: Concepts and have·. the disability minorities Issues in Gerontology, Alzhei- carved out maneuvering· room for mer's Disease, Family and themselves within the con- Caregiver Issues, Mental strai~ts of societal ideo1ogies Health, Health Pro;motion and and arrangements pertaining to Wellness, Administration and. them? How have they attempted Management, Long-term. Care, to modify social beliefs in Legal and Ethical Issues, order .. to · expand their social Clinical Issues in Geriatric power? Care, Special Topics in Aging. The recent work in deaf Contact: American ·Society on history by Harlan Lane . and in Aging, 833 Market St., San the history of people with Francisco,. CA 94103; 415/543~ mental retardation by Peter 2617. Tyer and Leland Bell draws upon the. voluminous published and B. July 20-25, .1988 ,. ii·cele..;, unpublished records ·of a. brate in 1 88 AHSSPPE and All variety of organizations, That J~zz," The· Assoc. of institutions, and individuals. Handicappe~ Student Services That m~terial comprises an Program in Post Secondary enormous body of untapped data. Edtication's 11th Annual In short, a wealth of.