Disability and PWDs as Seen Through History

The nomads considered people with disabilities useless because they could not contribute to the wealth of their tribe. Whenever the tribe moved on to a new location, people with disabilities were left behind and die.

The Greeks sought rational reasons for disability. They reached such conclusions as: epilepsy was a disturbance of the mind; and deaf people could not learn because communication was essential to learning.

Early Christianity brought a period of sympathy and pity toward people with disabilities. Churches began organizing services for people with disabilities within their congregations and homes. Many Christians believe that disability is some sort of impurity. This impurity could be purged through worship and forgiveness of sins, including the belief that with enough prayer and rituals the disability could be eliminated.

During the Middle Ages, Christians became fearful of people with disabilities as their attraction to supernaturalism increased. People with disabilities were also ridiculed, such as court jester who was actually someone with a humped back. People with disabilities were not only ridiculed but persecuted as well. Disability became a manifestation of evil.

The Renaissance brought the conception of medical care and treatment for people with disabilities. Education was available to people with disabilities for the first time in history. An enlightened approach to social norms that dreams for better future seemed to encourage active participation of people with disabilities in their respective communities.This is not to say that people with disabilities were not often institutionalized. Periods from the Renaissance through World War 2 indicated that society believed people with disabilities might be educated, but usually in "special" schools, far from urban or heavily populated areas.

During the 1930s in Hitler’s Germany, people with disabilities, most notably those with mental retardation and mental illness, became the Gestapo's first guinea pigs in medical experimentation and mass execution. Before the SS began mass extermination of Jews, Gays and Lesbians and other minorities and their supporters, people with disabilities were all put to death by Hitler's concentration camp staff.