FONSFAQ: Disability History

[trouble]

A bunch of awesome people I know are doing Three Weeks for Dreamwidth where they are accepting prompts and will write answers to questions about their topics. This started with dingsi. There is a master list!

(FONSFAQ: Frequently (Or Not So Frequently) Asked Question)

I thought I would love to be asked (and answer) questions about disability history! Because I love it like ice cream.

(In fact, you'd be doing me a huge favour by asking these questions. Don & I are playing around with an idea about a disability history related podcast this summer, and having some idea what people might be interested in knowing would be helpful.)

Things I do not know the answers to easily, I will happily research.

Please leave prompts! Preferred style would be PROMPT in the subject heading of the comment, but don't fret the details. Also, please feel free to signal boost this, as I would love an excuse to talk about my interests with everyone in the world. All the time. (Also, feel free to leave multiple prompts.)

check out Dingsi's prompt page for more ideas.

ETA: I forgot to tell people that they are welcome to claim and write about any of these! Please don't take my comments as claiming them for just me. It's a huge field, and I would love to see other people's responses. :D

Comments

PROMPT

[meloukhia]

Can you pretty please with ice cream on top talk about unsung 19th century disability heroes?

Re: PROMPT

[trouble]

They may end up mostly being in North America and France. Is that okay?

[marina]

Your top 5 favorite anecdotes from disability history, as a historian?

[trouble]

Oooh! :D Thank you!

Re: PROMPT

[meloukhia]

Yes! Although I would not be averse to multiple fills of this prompt from other places...

PROMPT

[puzzlement]

(Note: I don't have personal or career disability expertise, historical or otherwise. But perhaps this is useful input for what the more 101 end of your podcast listeners could be interested in. It's entirely possible that you have blogged some or all of these before!)

1. What are some examples of disability-centred approaches/community structures/rhetoric from historical times/places that you wish 21st century North America and culturally similar communities would re-implement?

2. What's an area of disability history studies that is really cool and amazing that you would be spending every possible second on, if you didn't already have an area/topic?

3. What are the top 1 or 2 books or journal articles in your area (or that from #2) that you think would be accessible to non-specialists and fairly self-contained?

[avendya]

What was the conception of disability like before the medical model (as I don't imagine the medical model is older than, say, germ theory)?

Re: PROMPT

[jesse_the_k]

(not trouble, but I'm admiring your prompts!)

PROMPT: Revisionism Redux

[jesse_the_k]

Are there developments or power structures or institutions that have been through more than one revisionist understanding? The example I can bring to mind is the handling of mental illness: the first institutional models were oriented around punishment; then the moral models; then the psuedo-scientific poke-it-hard era of psychosurgery, insulin shock, ice baths, ECT; now the psuedo-scientific drug-it-hard + deinstitutionalization.

Do the enactors of these different approaches maintain ignorance of their histories? Is every new thing The Best Thing Ever, pushing the past into an oubliette somewhere?

PROMPT

[bell]

Reflections on how the laws for disabled persons have developed differently in assorted countries would be totes awesome. :D

[verity]

Do you know about the history of asylum design/architecture in Canada/Nova Scotia during 1850-1900? If, so, tell me! I am curious to how it compares to the US.

[trouble]

Oh my gosh, do I. Future Thesis Adviser wrote a book about it!

Re: PROMPT

[trouble]

I will reflect on this! :D

Re: PROMPT: Revisionism Redux

[trouble]

Hmm. I think I have stuff on that in my brain. :D

[trouble]

I will ponder this!

Re: PROMPT

[trouble]

yay! I think I have some answers for this! Thank you!

[lilacsigil]

Disability history is often presented by journalists as a shiny "And things were terrible in the past but now they're awesome!" What, if anything, do you think was actually better in the past, in the lives of disabled people, the dominant medical treatments or philosophies, or institutionally? Any time frame you like!

[trouble]

Ooh, thank you!

[awils1]

A podcast would be awesome. AWESOME I SAY.

[magdala]

Medical records follow us everywhere, here. One of the things that freaks me out and prevents me from, I don’t know, accessing healthcare is the fact that forms inevitably require me to list diagnoses of mental conditions with a higher chance of having my applications rejected (no anti-discrimination laws here). On the other hand, I know good record-keeping is essential for continuity in healthcare provision. So, what are your thoughts on records?

[Awesome topic, by the way! I’m really looking forward to the posts that come out of this.]

Prompt!

[tea]

As a non-historian, I'd love to know something about the process of studying disability history. Are there resources that are particularly important to you as a disability historian? Are there particular challenges to the study of the history of disability? Are there modern biases in or against the field itself? How does Canada fare in terms of funding and job opportunities for academics in the field vs. other countries?

Somewhat related, how does your study of the history of disability interact with your modern activism/involvement with/experiences of disability? I imagine there's no way understanding disability history can NOT be useful to modern legislation re access and discrimination, but do you have any specific examples as to how we can 'learn from the past'?

Prompt: schoolchildren

[elf]

How has the treatment of school-aged children with disabilities changed over time? Improved? Worsened in spots?

Optional/potential tangential bits: What were some of the worst methods inflicted on children, and what finally made them change? Why were they used in the first place? Are any of the worst methods still used? What kinds of differences existed between public schools & private schools? Between physical & mental/emotional disabilities? (How) Have media portrayals of disabilities affected how children with disabilities are treated?

[vacillating]

To what extent can we trace the history of particular illnesses/disabilities, given the instability of diagnostic methods and concepts through time?

Prompt: Asylums.

[lilmoka]

I'd love to hear about psychiatric hospitals in the last two centuries.

PROMPT: insurance industry

[lizcommotion]

How did the insurance industry develop? When did it start becoming common practice for employers to offer health insurance? This is kind of US-centered, but I'm interested in whatever knowledge you have of other places in the globe, too.

Re: PROMPT: insurance industry

[trouble]

The insurance industry is actually really interesting historically because it comes out of mutual aid societies in the US & Canada.

Re: Prompt: Asylums.

[trouble]

Hmm. If I stick to Canada, will that be okay?

[trouble]

That is an excellent question! I may have an answer to it.

Re: Prompt: schoolchildren

[trouble]

Oh Elf, you just asked me about my thesis. :D

Re: Prompt!

[trouble]

I am really looking forward to answering this.

[trouble]

I have many thoughts on records! I shall do my best!

[trouble]

I'm really anxious about whether or not it will ever go beyond the idea stage.

Re: Prompt: Asylums.

[lilmoka]

Of course!