This is page 26 of the Evening Standard on Monday 23rd February 2009: ‘Dozens of parents have complained to the BBC that a disabled television presenter is scaring their children’. Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain, Cerrie Burnell reporting, BBC 2021
‘We were made to feel superfluous to the world. You know, and that’s a very hard message.’ ibid. early interview of resident disabled woman
‘They didn’t want disabled people – they wanted us to be perfect.’ ibid. disabled woman
How is it possible these attitudes still exist in the 21st century? ibid.
With nowhere else to go, the workhouses started filling with sick and disabled people. ibid.
Feeble minded: ‘An umbrella term for all sorts of disabilities.’ ibid. historian
In 1913 The Mental Deficiency Act gave authorities sweeping new powers to institutionalise people against their will. The effects of this policy to segregate and confine people that didn’t fit is still being felt today. ibid.
‘Once they have been born, defectives are happier and more useful in these institutions than when at large. If carefully trained, they can be taught simple routine tasks. It would have been better by far for them and for the rest of the community if they had never been born.’ ibid. 1930s Eugenics film
Ideas about eugenics grew in popularity across the world during thee 1930s. But it was in Germany that they were taken to their most extreme conclusion. Between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi regime carried out the mass sterilisation of up to 400,000 disabled people with all kinds of impairments. Over a quarter of a million more were murdered. The discoveries of these horrors ended Britain’s public support for eugenics, but it didn’t end the authorities still trying to control the lives of disabled people. ibid.
Efforts to rehabilitate disabled people had begun after the First World War with wounded servicemen. ibid.
[Dr] Guttman had a brilliantly simple idea: to use competitive sports to give disabled people the chance to succeed. ibid.
It took one man who was living in a residential home in Hampshire to change the rules – Paul Hunt … ‘I am proposing the formation of a consumer group to put forward nationally the views of actual and potential successors of the workhouse.’ ibid.
Hitler authorised compulsory sterilisation for selective disabled Germans. Later he would authorise the killing of tens of thousands of them. The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler I: Leading Millions into the Abyss, BBC 2012
If carefully trained they can be taught simple routine tasks. Once they have been born, defectives are happier and more useful in these institutions when at large. It would have been better by far for them and the rest of the community if they had never been born. Public Information Eugenics film, cited The Queen’s Hidden Cousins
I am convinced that the multiplication of the feeble-minded is a very terrible danger to the race. Winston Churchill, letter to Hebert Asquith
At the heart of para-sport lies a system that decides which athletes compete against each other – it’s under pressure. With a greater range of athletes than ever competing, the sport’s governing bodies is accused of overseeing a system that can be deeply unfair. Athletes who have complained say they’ve been warned to stay silent. Paralympics: The Unfair Games? BBC 2021
‘People are appearing almost able-bodied; you are barely able to tell what their disability is.’ ibid. competitor
Spanish paralympic basketball team, Sydney Olympics: ten of the team pretended to be mentally disabled. ibid.
The daily struggle of millions with a hidden disability. Many suffering in silence or being ignored. The battle to get the benefits they deserve. And the pioneering scheme getting people into work. Tonight: Hidden Disabilities: The True Cost?
It’s estimated that twelve out of the forty million people living with disability are dealing with one that is not visible. ibid.
Tonight: From navigating the booking process to taking trains, just how challenging can getting away be when your mobility’s impaired? Tonight: Access Denied: Britain’s Mobility Problem, ITV 2023
This film is about a scandal, an unseen scandal where the blame is upon all of us. It concerns thousands of our children who are forced to live deep in the shadows of our society than even those in our prisons. They are the 6,000 mentally handicapped children who live out their lives as long as they are inmates in grim Victorian institutions where they are fed and clothed and left often just to sit in the corner … Most of these children get no education at all. John Pilger, Nobody’s Children, ATV 1975
Cut off, confirmed, dumped in places like this. ibid.
‘If this isn’t resolved quickly then I cannot survive. Like psychically survived. Dispatches: The Truth About Disability Benefits, suicide victim’s call for help, Channel 4 2021
A long line of victims of errors in the benefits system stretching back over ten years. ibid.
‘You’ve probably got no idea how challenging it can be to get the benefits you’re entitled to.’ ibid. victim
‘A very risky process. A lot of suffering. A lot of anxiety. Stress.’ ibid. professor
Once I was in that dynamic, I suppose all hell broke loose … What I experienced was domestic abuse. Dispatches: Trapped, Disabled & Abused, victim, Channel 4 2023
One in seven disabled people experience domestic abuse compared to one in twenty non-disabled people. ibid.
A recent study by Women’s Aid found just 1% of refuges are wheelchair accessible. ibid.
There are about 1.5 million severely physically handicapped people in the United Kingdom. World in Action: They’re Only Human Beings Like Everybody Else, ITV 1970
The new Chronically Sick & Disabled Persons Act 1970 … Local authorities must provide suitable accommodation … Local authorities have a duty to provide certain welfare services for the handicapped … All local authorities must have an up to date list of handicapped people in their area … The Act provides for the training and employment of disabled people. ibid.
Alice Tai is an elite athlete. She’s a paralympic gold medallist and a world record holder. And a lot of other cool things as well. Amputating Alice, Channel 4 2023
Alice has a condition known as Bilateral Talipes, or ‘Club Feet’. Something she was born with. ibid.
Alice decided to have her right leg amputated seven months before the start of the games. ibid.
‘Wheelchair Rugby League: the best sport in the world.’ Storyville: Made of Steel: Wheelchair Rugby’s Fiercest Rivalry, BBC 2023
‘France are number one in the world. Whenever we’ve played France, we’ve been the team that loses our head. They’re the team to beat.’
November 2022: The Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup is being hosted in England. The English and French teams are favourites. ibid.
The extraordinary trial captivating America … Who is the victim in the Anna Stubblefield Case? … the activist professor who sacrificed her family, career and eventually her freedom. Tell Them You Love Me, newspaper headlines & article, Sky Documentaries 2024
I don’t mind people knowing because I’m not guilty of the crime. ibid. Anna
I’m in love with the man [DMAN, disabled with facilitated communication] … He typed, I know. I love you too … He said, So now what? ibid.
I stumbled on the Frontline documentary on FC. ibid. DMan’s brother
Facilitators were doing this thinking that they were giving people the ability to communicate. ibid. critic of FC
I have seen facilitated communication absolutely work. ibid. disabled academic
The crimes being investigated are crimes of a sexual assault nature. ibid. rozzer
Dear Professor Stubblefield, I am hereby notifying you that the University has reason to believe that you may have committed a very serious criminal offense, constituting an act or acts of moral turpitude … ibid. letter
If you’re a visibly disabled person, the chances are that somebody, often a complete stranger will have come up you and said, Gosh, if I was like you, I couldn’t go on, I’d rather be dead. Liz Carr: Better Off Dead, BBC 2024
Assisted Death: but I prefer to call it what it is – Assisted Suicide. If you think it’s just about terminal illness, think again.
These laws, I believe, will put lives like mine, maginalised lives, at risk. And those risks will be fatal. All because of the basic assumption that some of us are better off dead. ibid.
It is about disability. ibid.