Attitudes Started It All

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Attitudes Started It All

• An Introduction to Independent Living -
• History and Movement

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ATTITUDES STARTED IT ALL

• Looking at our history as people with
  disabilities can help us see where we have come
  from and where we are going.

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The Ancient Era 1500 B.C.-475 A.D.
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Nomadic Tribes

• Considered people with disabilities useless
  because they couldnt contribute to the wealth of
  the tribe
• Often left people with disabilities to die
  whenever the tribe moved to a new location

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Greeks and the Ancient Era

• Ancient people struggled
• to explain their world
• Natural phenomena, such
• as storms or the change
• of seasons were attributed to gods or some
  sort of intervention by higher beings
• The Greeks sought more rational reasons,
  however, for disability.

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Greeks and the Ancient Era

• They reached such conclusions as
• Epilepsy was a disturbance of the mind
• People who were deaf could not learn because
  communication was essential to learning.
• The Greeks referred to people with intellectual
  deficiencies as idiots.

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The Word Idiot

• The word idiot comes from the Greek word idios
  referring to a person who was not a public
  official. It then came to refer to one who
  lacked professional knowledge and later to one
  who was ignorant, or ill-informed.

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Early Christianity

• Early Christianity brought a period of sympathy
  and pity.
• Churches organized services for people with
  disabilities within their congregations and
  homes.
• Many Christians held superior attitudes
• -Resulted in a general loss of autonomy

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Early Christianity continued

• To many disability represented impurity of some
  kind.
• This impurity could be purged through worship and
  forgiveness of sins

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The Middle Ages Renaissance, and Reformation
476 A.D.-1500 A.D.
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The Middle Ages

• A period marked by indifference, neglect, and
  fear for people with disabilities
• People with disabilities were
• considered to be the fools
• and court jesters employed
• to entertain nobility

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The Middle Ages continued

• First Asylum for abandoned infants was founded in
  787 AD
• Conditions at this and other such institutions
  were custodial at best

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Idiot Cages

• Idiot cages
• Their purpose
• Keep people with disabilities out of trouble.
• May have also served
• as entertainment for
• townspeople.

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Ship of Fools

• Some persons with disabilities,
• were shipped off to other
• lands.
• So they would no longer pose a
• burden.
• This practice led to the Ships of Fools

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Ships of Fools

• The legend of the Ships of Fools is
• -Well-documented in literature
• -A symbol of perceptions of madness and other
  disabilities.
• The popularity of the legend suggests that
  society wanted to separate itself from deviant
  populations.

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More about the Middle Ages

• Christians became fearful of people with
  disabilities as their attraction to
  supernaturalism increased.
• People with disabilities were not only ridiculed
  but persecuted as well.
• Disability became a manifestation of evil.

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Segregation for Economic Survival

• Economic survival was a strong motivation for
  segregation
• Persons with disabilities were likely among the
  poorest citizens

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The Renaissance

• Brought the initiation of medical care and
  treatment for people with disabilities.
• Education was available to people with
  disabilities for the first time in Western
  recorded history.

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The Renaissance continued

• Active participation of people with disabilities
  seemed to be encouraged in their communities.
• This is not to say that people with disabilities
  were not often institutionalized.

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The Reformation

• Had a profound effect on how people perceived
  disability
• Persons with disabilities were treated as
  subhuman organisms during this time period.
• Periods from the Renaissance through World War II
  indicated that society believed that people with
  disabilities might be educated
• Usually in special segregated programs or
  schools

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The 17th and 18th Centuries

• More constructive and scientific approach to
  individuals with disabilities. Some people who
  studied human nature and disability included
• Thomas Hobbes
• John Locke

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American Colonies

• First settlers would not admit people with
  disabilities
• Immigration was restricted

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Living Conditions

• Were harsh in the
• early 19th century
• Persons who lived in
• poverty
• Often put in poorhouses
• Wealthier parents
• Tended to keep children with disabilities at home

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Other Practices in the Early 19th Century

• Warning Out
• Passing On

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Extreme Wealth and Extreme Poverty

• The 1820s
• Climate of enormous wealth in the growing
  industrial cities
• Extreme poverty felt in a large number of rural
  and urban areas
• People began to speak out for people who were
  oppressed or neglected.

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Extreme Wealth and Extreme Poverty continued

• The 1880s
• Most states and territories had some programs for
  people with disabilities
• Most of these programs were in large institutions.

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Invisibility and Abandonment (1925-1950)

• At least one state supported institution existed
  in every state
• The number of residents increased from
  25,000-50,000
• Professional views of persons with disabilities
  began to change.

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Economic Depression and Lack of Education

• In spite of changing views, the
• size and number of institutions
• continued to grow. This growth
• was in part due to
• The Depression
• The lack of educational services

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Extreme Consequences of Eugenics

• United States-Housed large number of persons in
  institutions
• Germany in 1930-The Holocaust

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The American Frontier Movement

• Community-based services began to emerge
• Rural areas-where people with disabilities tended
  to be in integrated settings.

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Rehabilitation Services

• Rehabilitation services were introduced as a
  federal program following WWI.
• Emphasis on veterans with disabilities returning
  home
• Vocational Rehabilitation System

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Social Change Movements During the 1960s

• Other major services for people with disabilities
  were seriously considered by federal legislation
• Intensive examination of the human service
  delivery system
• Community-based programs for people with
  disabilities began growing
• New concepts, new technology, and new attitudes
  began to make a difference.

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The Impact of Other Social Movements

• Five other social movements of the 1960s and
  70s contributed to the evolving movement for
  independent living for people with disabilities.
  These were
• Civil Rights Movement
• Consumerism
• Self-help
• De-medicalization
• De-institutionalization

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Ed Roberts Father of the Independent Living
Movement
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The Impact of Other Social Movements

• People with disabilities pointed out that they
  were being denied access to basic services and
  opportunities.
• Similarities in Rosa Parks and people with
  disabilities accessing the bus/community.

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My Involvement in the Independent Living Movement
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Where Do We Go From Here?
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The Quiz
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• The word idiot is used everyday in television and
  in the movies. To refer to someone as an idiot
  in everyday conversation is
• Ok, because it no longer refers to people with
  mental retardation.
• Ok, because the word refers to stupid actions,
  not the people themselves.
• Not acceptable
• Not acceptable because it should only be used in
  a clinical application.

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• Divine intervention, the belief that children are
  born with disabilities because it is the will of
  God, or the gods, is a belief prevalent in which
  era(s)?
• The Ancient Era
• The Middle ages
• The 20th Century
• All of the above

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• The practice of exposure, leaving people out in
  the weather to die, and infanticide, the
  deliberate killing of infants
• Disappeared after Christianity became widespread
• Continue to the present day
• Were outlawed by the Elizabethan Poor Laws
• Were outlawed after World War II when the Nazi
  death camps were exposed.

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• Prevailing public policy and funding priorities
  promote keeping children with disabilities with
  their families over other alternatives.
• True or False?

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• The ability to be productive repay society for
  what one receives, determines a persons worth,
  only those programs for people with disabilities
  that yield a positive monetary return on
  investment should be funded.
• True or False?

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• Throughout history, people with disabilities have
  generally been relegated to the lowest economic
  strata of society. One way for them to eke out
  their survival was through begging. Today
  because of our heightened awareness of the
  impoverishment of many people with disabilities
  the increased availability of programs designed
  to enhance their economic success, people with
  disabilities are no longer forced to beg for
  their living.
• True or False?

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• Developmental Disabilities are caused by
• Genetics
• Environment
• Divine Interventions
• A B

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• Sterilizing people with mental retardation to
  keep them from having children with
  disabilities.
• Was discontinued after World War II
• Was never practiced in the U.S.
• Continued into the latter part of the 20th
  century
• Was considered inhumane treatment by Samuel
  Gridley Howe

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• The original function of the Stanford-Binet IQ
  test was
• To determine the innate mental ability of U.S.
  army recruits
• To measure the intelligence of normal children
• To exclude children with mental retardation from
  the public education system
• To identify help children with learning
  disabilities

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I would like to express my sincere thanks to the
Brazoria County Center for Independent Living for
their dedication, commitment, and their technical
support in this training.

Materials used in
this training included BCCILs Advocacy Skills
Training-IL History and Movement. Materials were
used with express written permission for training
and facilitation purposes only. BCCILs Advocacy
Skills Training was developed with materials
from the Minnesota Governors Council on
Developmental Disabilities Parallels in
Time-Historical Perspectives on Disability CD
ROM. Materials used from the Parallels in Time
CD ROM were used with expressed written
permission for training and facilitation purposes
only. For more information, contact Colleen
Wieck, PhD., Executive Director, The Minnesota
Governors Council on Developmental Disabilities,
370 Centennial Office Building. 658 Cedar
Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55155, Phone
651-296-4019, TTY 651-296-9962. Fax
651-297-7200. Toll-free number 1-877-348-0505 A
copy of this written permission is maintained on
file at the Brazoria County Center for
Independent Living. For more information, contact
Chamane Barrow, Associate Director, Brazoria
County Center for Independent Living (BCCIL),
1100 D East Mulberry, Angleton, Texas 77515,
Phone [phone] V/TTY. Fax [phone].