Exam question 1 Flashcards
What were some positive attitudes to disability in Ancient Greece and Rome?
Spartans showed admiration of those capable despite their impairments (Penrose, 2015)
Evidence of Ancient Greeks taking measures to include infants born with physical impairments (Sneed, 2021)
What were some negative attitudes to disability in Ancient Greece and Rome?
Obsession with physical perfection and beauty.
Religious beliefs - disability linked to sin and work of the devil.
Greek myth of infanticide and inspection at birth.
What are some positive attitudes to disability in Medieval Britain
Monks and nuns provided shelter to disabled and ill as Christian duty - although this reinforced that disabled should be pitied and cared for
Almshouses.
What are some negative attitudes towards disability in Medieval Britain?
Heavily Christian society - belief that disability was the work of the devil and punishment for sins.
Witch hunts - those who were impaired viewed as working with the devil and murdered.
Introduction of mental institutions (Bethlehem hospital - 1247) - reinforced ideologies that disabled should be isolated and need to be fixed.
What are some positive attitudes towards disability in Tudor and Stuart Britain
Disability seen as inevitable and ordinary
More care available for those with disabilities - charities, care as a civic duty and morally correct, new almshouses.
Positive attitudes towards soldiers and seamen - hospitals, sick pay, 1590 Chatham Chest provided pensions
Poor Law Acts (1530) - disabled protected by law and provided relief
What are some negative attitudes towards disability in Tudor and Stuart Britain
Destruction of religious hospitals left many disabled people homeless (1536)
Mentally ill seen as a source of humour and entertainment - court fools
What were the attitudes towards disability in the Industrial Era
Focus on medical treatment - something to be fixes, no longer seen as normal and expected.
Introduction of factories and capitalism introduced need of ‘able-bodied’ workers viewing disabled as incapable
Focus on isolation and institutionalisation (1808 - parliament authorised publicly funded asylums)
Disability to be pitied (charities), changed, feared, and ogled (Peter the Wild boy adopted by royal household)
What were some positive attitudes towards disability in the Victorian Era?
Series of specialist schools and charitable organisations for disabled people established (1838 -)
By 1899 there were 45 specialist day schools in London teaching 2,000 children (Historic England, 2024)
What were some negative attitudes towards disability in the Victorian Era?
Ideology of fear, pity and discomfort
Increase in mental institutions - increasing ideology that the mentally ill should be removed from society
Disabled people demonised and seen as something to be cured.
1834 Poor Act - new workhouses built with inhumane designs and miserable workers mostly filled with disabled people
1845 Lunacy Act - Compulsory county insane asylums
What were some of the positive attitudes towards disability in the early 20th century?
Disabled ‘heroes’ returning from WW1 (advances in plastic surgery, prosthetics etc, initiatives for employers to take on disabled workers)
1918 Education Act and 1944 Education Act - Specialist education for disabled children
What were some negative attitudes towards disability in the early 20th century?
Exclusion from mainstream education - ‘un-educable’ people.
Eugenics - saw disabled people as a burden to the human race.
Rural colonies established for disabled people - exclusion
1913 Mental Deficiency Act - derogatory language, many people to be placed in colonies or institutionalised
What were some positive attitudes towards disability post WW2?
Anti-eugenics - in light of Nazi ideologies
Focus on rehabilitating soldiers (NHS rehabilitation)
1962 Education Act - LEAs required to provide grants for disabled students, more parental rights.
1970 Education (Handicapped Children Act) - responsibility of disabled children now upon LEAs
1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Person’s Act - required local authorities to improve services for disabled people
What were some negative attitudes towards disability post WW2?
Focus on segregated education
1960 Education Act - disabled children sent to segregated schools
What are some positive attitudes towards disability in modern Britain?
1978 Warnock Report - called for further inclusion of those with SEND within mainstream education (with specialist providers available for those with complex needs), required LEAs to keep records of children in their local area with SEND, encouraged further inclusion and collaboration between mainstream and specialist
1981 Disabled Persons Act - further disabled autonomy over services available to them
1995 Disability Discrimination Act - criminalised discrimination against disabled people
2010 Equality Act - further autonomy, support in education and employment
2015 SEND code of practice - specific support regulations supporting SEND and inclusion
Negative attitudes towards disabilities in modern Britain
Higher exclusion rates for those with SEND than those without
Competitive education system
2021 Ofsted SEND report - identified schools struggling to support SEN students and with implementation of SEND code of practice
2022 Overruling of National Disability Strategy and pausing of 14 policies
2023 UK Parliament POST - identifies existing stigma and lack of support surrounding hidden disabilities
