BookOne

Discrimination – The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people
or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
Imposed – Force something to be put in place.
HISTORICAL VIEW OF DISABILITY
Once upon a time, many, many years ago, everybody
that survived birth contributed to the wellbeing of their
family and, by extension, their community. This
generally meant that a person worked in some capacity
to provide food etc for their family, with a bit left over
for exchange or commerce.
1750
Then, around 1750, the Industrial Revolution began. This was a
good time for entrepreneurs. What was previously a manual labour
and draft animal based economy, became machine based
manufacturing (source: www.wikipedia.com).
What this meant in reality, was that instead of a person’s work
needing to cover support for themselves and contribution to
family, they now also needed to cover some profit for the owner of
the factory.
Over the next century, people were judged according to their ability to work and produce
profit for someone else. Employers would dictate what work needed to be done, and would
select the people most likely to generate the most profit for them. Their first choice was
people strong of body and mind.
People regarded as being weak were not considered able to work in this new environment.
They were considered dis-­‐abled.
To make things even more difficult, families began to live in bigger towns or cities rather
than hamlets, people went ‘out’ to work, and the care of the young, old and infirm became
an issue.
To this end, disability as a negative condition is considered to be a Social Construct.
A social construct is something that has been created or developed by society. It’s a
perception of a group of people, or an idea, that has been ‘constructed’ through cultural or
social influences.
1850
By around 1850, society had convinced itself that disabled people
were generally a risk and that it probably wasn’t a good idea for
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