Disability studies and health Flashcards
What terms were used in the early parts of the last century to describe people with disabilities?
Feeble minded, idiot, moron, imbecile
- nowadays these terms are no longer used
-language influences attitudes and there are good reasons for rejecting terminology that causes offence, stigmatisation and invokes prejudice
What was the old poor law of 1601?
Religious institutions often used to help people that and needed support
What was the new poor law 1832?
created lots of workhouses, hospital asylums for people with disabilities
- workhouses were created to get people off the streets and get the working
Why were the 1886 idiots act and 1890 lunacy act created?
created as they realised some people couldn’t work, therefore workhouses were not suitable for these people
- these acts caused people to be institutionalised
What is eugenics?
The application of biological principles to upgrade the physical and mental strength of the nation
- part of the evolutionary theory= survival of the fittest - by looking after people with disabilities we are propagating our kind said Charles Darwin - it concluded that people needed to be segregated because if they were kept together they would reproduce and there would be more people with disabilities -there was a real fear of learning disabilities then
What did the eugenics education society advocate to prevent such degeneration?
- sterilisation
- martial regulation
- birth control
- segregation of the unfit
What did Mary Dendy say?
She was a leading figure who said “feeblemindedness was not one of many social problems but their cause; it was an evil which brings all other evils in its train”
What definitions did the mental deficiency act of 191 3 use to describe people with disabilities?
1) idiot-someone who is unable to guard himself against common physical dangers
2) imbecile someone who is incapable of managing or being taught to manage his own affairs
3) feeble minded someone requiring care and supervision for his own protection or the protection of others
4) moral imbecile who was not mentally defective
What was the purpose of the mental deficiency act of 1913?
laid on local authorities the duty of providing care for certain cases of mental deficiency - partly done by Guardian ship paying for accommodation in certain voluntary institutions providing new premises
Where and when did the first school for feeble minded individuals open?
1892 in leicester - eugenics focused on hereditary nature of defects which led to disabled people being segregated into institutions - there was no welcome for disabled people in the community
What was the national assistance act of 1911?
It introduced the first welfare benefits
What was elementary school like in the late 18th century?
classes were large and it was instruction based on the “official code” with rote learning and memory tests - teachers were paid based on their results - some children were not able to learn in this type of environment
What was the 1899 elementary education (defective and epileptic children)act?
applied to children who “by reason of mental or physical defect are incapable of receiving benefit from the instruction in ordinary schools but are not incapable by reason of such defect of receiving benefit from instruction in special classes or schools” - considerable reluctance to set up these schools, and therefore by 1908 only 133 out of 327 authorities were using their powers to do so
What superseded the terminology “mental deficiency”?
educational sub normality and maladjustment
When were “special schools” properly established?
in 1914 power to provide education for mentally defective children became a duty and by 1918 for physical disabled children
- often run as charities and supported by voluntary subscriptions
What was the main purpose of the “special schools”?
to provide training and disciple so that the disabled inmates became less of a public burden and didn’t end up as beggars or living on the poor law handouts or become a public nuisance
- although this places provides an asylum their inmates were expected to help run them
What did special schooling promote?
for expertise and material resources
offering a sympathetic environment
When did the beliefs around disability change?
After WW1 and WW2 as there were many able bodied soldiers who came back that had suffered severe injuries
