Disability History Month: Voices That Defy the Stereotype

The most impactful stories come from those who live them. For people with disabilities, speaking for themselves is not just about sharing their truths but about showing the world their strength, resilience, and importance. UK Disability History Month, which runs from the November 14 until December 20 and International Day of Persons with Disability Day, December 3, are events to raise awareness about disabled people’s fight for equality and human rights, However, to look to the future we also must examine our past and consider the historical treatment of people with disability.

Edward Albert was a black immigrant in London in the middle of the nineteenth century. He was a Jamaican-born double-leg amputee and lived precariously by cleaning a road crossing. Originally, he’d been a sailor, but after frost-bite at sea, his shipmates put his feet in a hot oven to warm them, leading to dangerous burns. Too injured to sail, he was abandoned in Chile but made his own way back to London to claim “his rights” to compensation. He printed his story in an eight-page book titled Brief sketch of the life of Edward Albert! A native of Kingston Jamaica. Showing the hardships he underwent and the sufferings he endured in having both legs amputated. Albert sold this book to passers-by, and also retold his story on a small placard around his neck. His life narrative had a direct value – in terms of earning his living and securing personal dignity.”

In 1931, George Thomas published an account of his life with muscular dystrophy. He lived in Soho, London with his family, three of whom also had muscular dystrophy. They were supported by his father, a waste collector for the local council, and lived in poor conditions in a condemned house. For the past decade Thomas had been at home, after losing “the freedom of the out of doors”. He described his life as being “deadly monotonous” and like being “buried alive”. He was constantly trying to meet people and to earn money through writing music. Cultural pursuits were one of the ways he countered stigma:

“educated people [who] when they come in contact with permanent invalidism especially in young people, always expect to find the object of their commiseration in a rather backward state mentally.”

He was proud, independent and had an ironic, class-conscious take on his situation:

“Like my more fortunate fellows, the ‘owner’ class, I am a parasite but a parasite with a clear conscience. When pressure of economic misfortune causes this little home to break up, I shall be quite prepared to go to an institution thoughtfully provided by the local authorities. I shall go with my head held high, for I shall know that not even an overwhelming physical misfortune prevented me from trying to get a ‘plum’ from the pie of life.” 

…Pauline Wiltshire wanted to use her 1985 autobiography to “prove to people that she was not a fool, and that she could lead a normal life.” As a Black woman with mobility and speech impairment, she was fed up with being labelled as having intellectual disabilities by officials in England, where she had migrated in the 1970s. She reflected on how she had provided care for other children when living in a hospital in her birthplace, Jamaica, for four years. Aged 10, she had been called “mummy” by other children: “there was nothing much wrong with me, myself, to be able to help others who were worse off”.

Though she could not read or write, dictating a book was a project that allowed her to assert her value, pushing back against the judgements she recalled voiced by others: “Oh how can she write a book? I didn’t even think she could talk.”

The authors remind readers that disability never stops for them. They will never not encounter stares, be asked intrusive questions, or have to plan around access to toilets, traversing kerbstones or communication assistance.

There is dignity and moral comfort in telling one’s life story. And these authors often wrote in the hope that it would change how society treated people like them. Their writing reveals how disabled people are gaslit, told that they are “empowered” by benefit systems, schools, technologies or experts. It shows us what it was like to live within welfare structures or social environments which did not function as planned or meet people’s needs.

All too often it is only the powerful who get to tell stories. This profoundly shapes how we see the world. But writing history without the testimony of ordinary disabled people is just smoke and mirrors.

Life writing shows disabled people in three dimensions. It gives value to lives that were judged to be without value, and this makes it revolutionary reading.

To read more about the lives and impacts of migrants on UK society, go to TogetherintheUK.