The part of disability history I’m going to focus on today is pretty heavy, so I will do my best to keep this post as light as I can and focus on the bigger picture rather than the gruesome side.
In the early 20th century, many public figures agreed with the idea of Eugenics. They believed that anyone disabled or ‘deficient’ was a threat to the ‘health of the nation’. The aim of eugenics was to eliminate human physical and mental ‘defects’ altogether to build a stronger society. Disabled people would be segregated from everyone else in the name of ‘perfecting the human race’.
However, the people of the 20th century had another thing coming when almost 2 million newly disabled British ex-servicemen came home from the battlefronts of the First World War some attitudes had to change. They were heroes who had sacrificed their bodies for the nation.
These are some of the ways society adapted to their return:
There were major advances in plastic surgery and prosthetics.
Ex-servicemen with physical and mental damage were treated with new exercise and fitness approaches.
Employers were urged to take on disabled workers and at the same time sheltered employment workplaces sprang up, including the British Legion poppy factory in south London.
New housing was built for disabled ex-servicemen, ranging from single cottages to entire adapted villages
This made a huge difference not only for the soldiers, but to the already disabled members of society. People being related to/knowing a disabled person created awareness in society and slightly more acceptance for disabled people in general. It was a moment in history that changed the way people viewed disability, and though it didn’t fix all of the disabled community’s problems, it was progress.