Did you know that Disability History Month starts this Thursday - 14th November?
You may ask, ‘What is Disability History Month?’
To put it simply Disability History Month is the celebration of disabled people throughout history. Through the All4Inclusion blog I am going to share a little with you about disability history and then, as a deaf person, I will include a strong emphasis on deaf history within these blogs.
This year Disability History Month runs from 14th November until 20th December and during that time I will try to write a few blogs about it and possibly a few others about disability related issues.
Many organisations will be organising events for Disability History Month including trade unions and the ‘official launch of Disability History Month UK’ is on Thursday 14th and will be marked through a webinar organised by UK Disability History Month – more about that later.
Disability History goes back many centuries to the Ancient Greeks and the Romans if not further, but I’m going to start in the 1800s.
Disabled people have been organising since the late 19th century, when the British Deaf Association and National League of the Blind were the first two recorded organisations “of” disabled people to form.
In this context “of” means a group or organisation that is run and controlled by disabled people. This is different to organisations “for” disabled people, which are run by non-disabled people to “provide for” disabled people.
The British Deaf Association was formed in 1890 and was the first recorded organisation of disabled people and since then disabled people have grown into a strong campaigning force. In the same year the British Deaf and Dumb Association was formed which changed its name to the British Deaf Association in 1971.
The National League of the Blind (NLB) was founded in 1893, and registered as a trade union in 1899. It affiliated to the Trades Union Congress in 1902. It was initially led by Ben Purse, a piano tuner, born in Salford in 1874. During the early 1900s its General Secretary was Thomas Summerbell.
1920 saw the march of Blind Workers to demand better pay and working conditions which led to the Blind Persons Act becoming law later that year. The marchers actually ended up meeting the Prime Minister at that time, David Lloyd George.
After the 1920 March it was some time before disabled people took to the streets again when the Disablement Income Group campaigned in the 1960s for an adequate income for those disabled people who were not able to work.
However we should not forget the 1944 Disability Employment Act which promised ‘reserved occupations’ which were reserved solely for people who had some sort of disability. It was intended to boost the employment of people with disabilities.
At this time of year when we remember the fallen of the World Wars as well as of more recent wars, we should remember that many service people returned from the Second World War with injuries which were classed as disabilities. The reserved occupations included jobs such as lift attendants or car park attendants. It would appear that the Disability Employment Act viewed disabled people as being both physically and mentally disabled.
The attitude enshrined in the Act embraced the medical model of disability where the disability is seen as a medical problem requiring a cure rather than recognising the need to transform society so that disabled people can fully participate.
Whilst there was not a lot of militancy in the 1940s it should be noted that in 1946, the National Cripples Journal denounced the government's promise of "security from cradle to grave", claiming that it did nothing for "the civilian cripple, who is incapable of earning a living". If there was going to be a bold new society fit for all, disabled people must be a part of that 'all'.
This is a call that we continue to hear today through calls for the Government to ‘Assist us to Live’ rather than ‘Assist us to die’. We are still demanding the full involvement of disabled people through co-production. I digress.
During the 1940s and 1950s the following organisations were set up. In 1946 the National Association for Mental Health and the National Association of Parents of Backward Children were formed, later becoming MIND and Mencap respectively. The Leonard Cheshire Foundation; British Epilepsy Association, the Spastics Society (now Scope) and hundreds of others soon followed. In 1951, 800 members of the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association took part in a 'silent reproach' march to 10 Downing Street.
It is not surprising that it was much harder then, for disabled people to gain work because of discrimination by employers and/or the lack of accessibility of buildings, public transport, etc.
In the second blog we will continue our Disability History in the 1970s
Before I conclude this blog I did promise to provide you with more information about the ‘official launch of Disability History Month UK’ this coming Thursday, 14th November. The theme of this year’s Disability History Month is Disability, Livelihood and Employment. I would encourage you to register for the webinar to launch Disability History Month UK and I hope to see you there on Thursday https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-united-kingdom-disability-history-month-2024-ukdhm-tickets-1037803356777
Please follow the link to Eventbrite to book your FREE tickets – the webinar is due to last 90 minutes and there are some interesting speakers lined up for you.
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