Attitudes past and present !!!!

[GRACELAND]

 I am putting the post here as it is too serous for the lighter   side                          Hi All,,
          I bring a question to you ,How did the Disabled manage in the past say 100-200 years ago ?
                     Did they live long ?                                                                             How did the parents cope ?
 I found recently a child that was born with out any arms or legs ,
 So i looked to see how long he lived ,3 years the parent looked after him  !   This must have been hard work in 1780s !!
                  What about school were these children allowed to attend ?
                   If they did were they picked upon for not being normal (who's normal   )              Were they picked on in life on anyway ?
                      Life must have been hell for the Disabled then !!
             But has any thing changed, OK so treatment has improved and aids to help them have electric chairs etc .
               But would you say the way so called normal pepole treat  the disabled has ?
                  How many open a door for a wheelchair user ?? (think about it ) !!!!
              How many will stare at a person with a scared face or not even greet them ,then pass them by as if not there ,,So what was it like in the past ??
           Has things really changed  at all  i ask you ?? 

[legs11]

Hi graceland,

that is a very good question that makes the mind boggle? I often wonder back to thinking how would a lot of today's youngsters get along without their computer's, boomboxes etc.......let alone wondering what they would be like if they were disabled.

legs11

[Keith Bateman]

My mother had to have her leg amputated below the knee - so as she was nearly 70 needed a wheelchair to get to the shops.
When I used to take her out people who knew mum would come up to ME and ask how my mum was!!
She used to say " I've only lost my leg you know - not my mind!"

I think "normal" people do not know how to treat the disabled -  do I mention their disablement or not?

But it must have been really hard in the 1800's


Keith

[GRACELAND]

And !!
    When people park their cars who takes any notice of ,,,

[Keith Sherwood]

Apart from possibly the idea that communities looked after their own more in the past, I know that if I had been born disabled and could have chosen when I could have lived, I know I would have wanted to have lived in the present.  No question.  Even though matters at this moment in time are far from ideal and perfect - access is still grudgingly granted in some areas - but life is much, much more worth living today, especially with computers and the internet, mobility aids, and overall more positive attitudes and awareness.  In this country, anyway...
This is a HUGE, emotive area, affecting millions of disabled people in this country, at least, and we have to be particularly careful what we say and write down, as sometimes seemingly innocuous statements can be misinterpreted.
Keith

[tabitha]

Back in the dark days of the 1930's my Mum-in-law can remember being sent around the corner on a Friday evening to take a shilling to her Grandparents. Her Grandfather was a groom and lost his sight after being kicked in the head by a horse.  If it hadn't been for having family close by they would have starved.

My Nan lost her sight gradually during the 1970's, she had her free tv licence, a clock that talked to her, her radio to listen to the cricket and numerous other helpful gadgets and gizmos to make her life easier.

I think some people's attitudes today towards disability are not much different to those of years ago . Although there is more information available about various disabilities and the effects they have on people's (and their families) lives now, some people will never be comfortable with people who are not the same as them
(their loss in my opinion).

Yes I do hold the door open for wheelchair users ....no different to how I am with anyone else, older people, younger people, mums with buggies etc.  (It constantly amazes me how many people forget to say thank you though )

And yes I do take notice of the car sticker Graceland!

tabitha 

[RJ_Paton]

Attitudes in general still have a long way to go before any disabled person regardless of their disability is fully accepted as part of our so called society.

That said, there has been progress  but it is a long slow road along which we are heading .... possibly too slow.

Regarding the wheelchair aspect , One friend of mine states that the worst aspect is the attitude of people who will often speak to whoever is with her rather than directly to her .... as she says ...its her legs that went not her brain.   

With regard to mental illness the long path mentioned above has hardly been started and our attitudes are, at best,  very poor and at worst ..... no better than they were in many ages gone by.

Through my work I got to know 4 women who were set up in a house of their own having been in an institution for most of their lives (over 50 years each) ... the reason 2 were physically disabled and 2  suffered mental health problems ... another woman who was incapable of independent living had been in the main centre since she was 17 (put in by her parents in the early 1900's) ... her crime had been to get pregnant and sully the family name.

At least we don't lock people up now and throw away the keys.

[JillJ]

This is a very big and difficult question to answer!   Firstly I think the word 'disabled' has two very different meanings, i.e. physically or mentally disabled?   I think it is clear from censuses, particularly of Workhouses, that the mentally disabled were treated very badly - their occupation was often given as 'Idiot' and to this day there are those who, for some perverse reason take pleasure in ridiculing the mentally ill.

I think physical disabilities in the 18th and 19th century must have presented enormous problems, both for the disabled and their carers, without the modern aids we take for granted nowadays.  Schooling was perhaps not such a difficult issue because it was very 'hit and miss' anyway.

As with most things, there are those who care and those who don't.   A lot of people turn a blind eye to disabled people because they just don't know how to deal with disability - particularly if they don't know what form the disability takes.   Others go to opposite extremes and treat anybody in a wheelchair as if they were a child - almost as if they think of themselves as a superior being.

Any 'normal' good mannered person would open a door for a wheelchair user and would not block their parking space.   Any ignorant lout would close a door in the face of a wheelchair user (or anyone else) and  would block access to a parking slot without giving it a second thought.

Having had six years of caring for parents who both needed wheelchairs toward the end of their lives I have experienced most of the problems.   Overall I would say people were helpful when necessary, but mostly oblivious.

Jill

[deadants]

I can remember when I was in high school, there was a kid a couple of years ahead of me who had a severe scolioses (hunch back) and thinking I'd hate to be like that. Well just a few years later in 1975 when I was 19, while  playing Rugby league, I suffered a broken neck. I have been in a wheelchair ever since. If I had had the same accident 30 years before that I would not have survived.

!n 1981 they had the international year of  the disabled and the politicians used it for all it's worth. Council introduced new access building codes, taxi companies had to have a certain number of SPV (special Purpose Vehicle) Trains and busses were all supposed to be wheelchair friendly as they were replaced. But 24 years later, If I want to go to the regional library to do research, I have to book the taxi a week in advance for both getting their and getting back. As the special  busses still haven't reached our town yet. Then when I get to the library, I can get into the building with the impressive ramp out the front. I can get to the 2nd floor by elevator where the local history section is but I can't get my wheelchair under any of the desks. The library is owned and run by the local council. Their the ones who make the access rules. They can see the big picture but the little things take a bit  longer to sink in.

Now you might think I'm having a winge, well I probably am. But if I was to go back in time just 50 years ago, I probaly would not have been allowed out of the the so called institution let alone find any transport.

I have just reading an artical about the workhouses of the 19th century, after reading that, Ive got it  made in the shade.

Now that I have had my moment on the soap box, how about some input on a photo I posted yesterday. clink on the link below.

deadants

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,30943.msg121785.html#msg121785