Cerebral Palsy

Defined by a Label: How Collective Action Brought about Change during the Second Half of the Twentieth Century for People with Cerebral Palsy

“…He said that there '[were] adverse consequences when the opportunity to work is lost' as the 'community survive [d] through work, depend[ed] on it for its existence and [was] shaped by it.' 71 Questions have been raised about the 'tedium of sub-contract work', whether the idea of 'normality' justified the work undertaken by those who were not viewed as 'economically productive'. An alternative view would place individuals in a 'Community Centre' where they could 'be enriched and given purpose by all kinds of social and cultural activities'.…”

“…Borsay provides evidence in Disability and Social Policy in Britain since 1750 (2005), which details the rise in the number of children who were not taken by 'mainstream' schools and who were set apart from their peers in special schools. 71 Drake considers education policy and segregation, and argues that deemed to be 'mentally defective and epileptic' or 'physically defective'.…”

“…Therefore, there was a recommendation to make a provision for special education as the 'lack of stimulus' would not allow 'capacities' to be developed 'beyond mediocre levels'. 71 The publication of the report gave hard evidence to the many theories that were being discussed even though it did not clarify the national scale of the problem.…”

“…These films were given by Mr Paul Cadbury, at a much later date, to Woodlands Hospital for their archives. 71 A criticism that can be made, is that the children at Through the use of clinical images, the children were being depicted as being something other than 'normal' and so the images were akin to those used for fundraising purposes. Garland Thomson considers the impact that photography has had on the medicalisation of disability and argues that it has 'contributed substantially' through its 'extensive use in diagnosing, documenting, identifying, treating and pathologizing disability'.…”

“…Out of 147 authorities, 107 responded to the survey. There were anomalies in the returns which included concerns about the 'efficiency of ascertainment', and whether children in Orthopaedic Hospitals were included, but the overall incidence figure was reported as 0.92 per thousand.14 A more detailed survey was undertaken by PatriaAsher and F. Eleanor Schonell, between November 1947 and March 1949. Asher and Schonell were from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Institute of Child Health.…”