Britan - disabled people

Factors for the fight for recognition

→ The housing act + homes fit for heroes (1919)

→ New treatments

→ New skills

→ Work

→ The Blind Person’s Act 1920s

→ Attitudes to the treatment of mental health

New treatments

Artificial limbs made from heavy wood → aluminium limbs instead (campaigned for by Disabled society)

• Queen Mary’s Hospital in London the main English limb-fitting hospital for ex-servicemen

Learning new skills

→Able to house 1,833 blinded ex-servicemen as they recovered, leaning new skills + exercising

Work

→ Most couldn’t find work unless it was ‘sheltered’

→Ex-servicemen trained as limb fitters at Roehampton

→ 1927 training school for war disabled taxi drivers

→ Basket weaving (can be seen as not great job)

The blind Person’s Act (1920s)

→ members of national league of Blind set off to march 200 miles to raise awareness

→Act reduced pension age from 70→50 for blind people

→Responsibility placed on authorities so weren’t always helpful/quick

→ ‘Justice not charity’ banner

Attitudes to treatment of mental health

→ Veterans with mental health conditions needed to continue treatment

→ ‘Shell Shock’ no visible injuries but symptoms of amnesia + headaches

→ most young soldiers signing up had poor preparations for dealing with trauma

Blind Person Act (1920)

On 5th April 1920, members of the National League of the Blind set off to march 200 miles to raise awareness of the lack of support for blind people

The march

→171 members took part

→ ‘a long rope ran the full length of column, and with this the men kept touch with one another’

→they arrived at Trafalgar Square and were met by 10,000 people

→5 days later Purse was granted address with the Prime Minister to discuss support

What did the Blind Person’s Act do (positively)

→ the act reduced the pension age for blind people from 70→50 and required local authorities to promote the welfare of the blind

→ workshops, hostels, homes

What did the Blind Person’s Act do (negatively)

→there were debates as to what ‘blindness’ meant in order to be eligible to claim the pension

→ council could be unreliable and not enough

→ proves how 1st march was ineffective

What was Eugenics

The idea of intervening to bring about a biological ‘improvement’ in humans

All about the Eugenics

→ Found support in middle class who were worried about working class poverty in overcrowded cities

→ aimed to get rid of slums so preventing working class people from having children

→ established in 1907

→in 1912 proposed an amendment to the Mental Deficiency Bill to prohibit procreation among the ‘feebleminded’ (however it was removed by MP Josiah Wedgwood before it was passed)

How did the Eugenics decline

→ peaked in 1930s

→tried to legalize voluntary sterilization but attracted little support

→ people thought it was like Hitler’s racial policies

What was the disabled persons employment act 1944?

3% quota fixed at

set specific jobs for disabled people

ineffective + bad jobs but recognition is improvement

jobs: lift attendant + car park attendent

What was rehabilitation

Set of interventions designed to optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions

aim: to get them back fighting

What new science was developed to help people injured during the war

Physiotherapy grew + artificial limbs design advance → particularly at Roehampton hospital

What was established in 1945

A network of convalescent and rehabilitation centres for disabled → ‘remploy factory’ → providing work for those with disabilities

What was establised in 1948

NHS, taken over by rehabilitation services by 1951

new designs in wheelchairs and appliances developed at hospital in Oxford

Sheltered work settings statistic 1953

90 factories employing 6,000 disabled people

National Assistance Act 1948

→ aimed to provide help to those who were homeless, disabled, mentally ill

→ accommodation for the elderly, frail and infirm

→ Benefit payments were also given to ‘top up’ incomes

→ HOWEVER: you had to be ‘means tested’ + benefits were too low as well so many people remained in poverty

History of the paralympic movement (Stoke Mandeville)

→the new spinal injuries unit was opened at stoke mandeville hospital 1944, poor resourced but then gained 50 patients

→ Guttman refused that spinal injuries meant death so advanced in treatment of paraplegia influencing a whole generation of doctors with his methods

→ Stoke Mandeville games in 1948

When was the first paralympics

Rome 1960

Campaigns and groups formed by people with disabilities (1950s-80s)

→1946 National association for mental health and National association of parents of backward children (mind)

→ Spastic society - awareness raised by high profile politicians with disabilities

(campaigns from activists demanding government to create new laws)

Changing ideas about treatment

Wolf wolfensberger denounced traditional asylums and long stay hospitals claiming they were abusive - dehumanising

leading to ‘social model’ where disabled people would control their own lives

1960s Media scandal

→ Ely hospital in Cardiff

→ Coldharbour Hospital in Dorset

scandals appeared on front pages of the newspapers

→ ‘Silent Minority’ television documentary exposing scandals at St Lawrence’s creating public concern and pressure for change

The chronically sick and disabled persons act 1970

→ passed by parliament

→act made local authorities responsible for providing welfare services to people who were disabled (however was not enough)

this built on the 1948 National Assistance

The motability allowance scheme 1978

→ only disabled people who could drive received support from government (in form of small, blue trike)

→ which was unable to take passengers leading to them being housebound

→ originally was a cash benefit to buy taxis/ scooters but was not enough

→ lead to creation of motability scheme

→ leading to delivering over 5 ½ vehicles in 1978 July (range of cars)

The Warnock Report and Special Education Needs in Schools (1978)

→ supported special needs children chaired by Mary Warnock

→ argued there was no simple distinction between ‘handicapped’ and ‘non-handicapped’

→1981: Education act was passed increasing integration for children with special needs - new term ‘pupils with special educational needs’

1981 Care in the community

After scandals and media reports about the brutality of disabled people the government converted to residential homes + day care facilities + low-rise buildings

Key events 1986-1995

→ lates 80s, ITV raised money (telethons), charities for the disabled

The key terms of the 1995 disability discrimination act

It was illegal for employers and service providers such as shops and restaurants to discriminate against someone because they were disabled

Case study: British council of organisations of Disabled People

→ David Blunkett

→ founded in 1981, aiming to build a ‘mass movement’ of disabled people in Britian

→ BCODP was prominent in the campaigns and protests which led to the disability discrimination act 1995

Sport

Paralympics is the 2nd biggest sporting event in the world. At the 2012 London Games 4,200 disabled athletes participated in 20 sports of fully accessible ‘universal design’ venues.

→ now they are their own right rather than about the rehabilitation of paralysed people

→ Wimbledon have also opened up wheelchair tennis