The title of my senior thesis I am in the process of writing is “The History, Evolution, and Future of Choice among People with Developmental Disabilities.” Could anyone help me out a bit? I’m just trying to expand my general knowledge at this point before I start my research, and Wikipedia isnt being very helpful. Here are some topics I’d like to know more about.
What was the fate of people with developmental disabilities before there were institutions?
Did institutions have a policy of taking infants who were left at the facility’s doorstep? I know a man who spent the first eighteen years of his life in an institution because his parents abandoned him in this manner.
Were there any genocides in which people with developmental disabilities were a primary target? I plan to research their role in the Holocaust, but are there any others?
What do some people foresee as being the next step, following person-centered planning and self-determination?
Any bit of information is helpful. I really just need a jumping-off point to start my research. THANKS!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
James Trent: Inventing the Feeble Mind- the History of mental retardation in the US
Stephen J Gould: The Mismeasure of Man
James Charlton: Nothing about us without us
Pearl S. Buck – Child who never grew very early memoir by a parent
Abandoned to their fate: Social policy and practice toward severely retarded people in America, 1820-1920. (1994) Phil Ferguson
Christmas in purgatory: A photographic essay on mental retardation. (1974) Burton Blatt & F. Kaplan. Syracuse, NY: Human Policy Press.
Forgotten Crimes: The Holocaust and People with Disabilities. Evans, S. (2004). Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee Press.
The state boys rebellion. (2004) M. D’Antonio. New York: Simon & Schuster. About the boys deposited at Fernald, a state institution in Massachusetts
If you can get hold of a book Annie coming out, it would answer all those question for you. It about a girl with Cerebral Palsy, in Melbourne. they thought she had intellectual disability until someone started teaching her, against the people in charge of the institution.
The women who taught her, then went to court to get Annie out of the institution. And later it was closed down.
The institution had children with a range of disability. They died like flies 3 a night.
These websites should be helpful for your research.
Disability Social History Project (DSHP) http://www.disabilityhistory.org/
Disability History Museum (DHM) http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/
Museum of disABILITY History http://www.museumofdisability.org/