There are many hidden histories .... UK Disability History Month

There are many hidden histories which for all sorts of reasons do not get the attention of either the professional historians or the general public.

All of us can cite examples and this week’s post from the Together Trust * has returned to highlight that December is UK Disability History Month and provides a link to the  English Heritage site, Disability in Time and Place, http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/disability-history/1914-1945/ which “reveals how disabled peoples' lives are integral to the heritage all around us.
The web resource includes new research as well as photographs from the English Heritage Archive and other collections, including the Together Trust.”

Now there is a lot of media coverage of the extent to which the recent Olympic Games heightened awareness of disability but I have no doubt that there is a long way to go.

But at least the language we use has changed.  When we were growing up my disabled sister was officially described as spastic, a word which became shortened in the playground to spaz and fast became a term of abuse.

And so the words we use do matter and so does the history of how people have overcome their disabilities often in the face of an uncaring and even hostile society.

Likewise I welcome the opportunity to know more about how the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges played a part in that story.

* http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/what-would-you-do-if.html#more

Picture; Bethesda group,1910,  courtesy of the Together Trust