The Long and Winding Road

A History of Disability

Edited by Pete Millington

A few years back, when I was working at Disability West Midlands, I started researching the history of disability issues, significant trends, events and famous disabled people. The research was published a s timeline in our magazine Pinpoint to celebrate the year 2000 and more recently I have made it into a Powerpoint presentation with aorund 200 slides including images and text.

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I will post selected information and images from the slides onto Spaghetti Gazetti on a rolling basis and if anyone is interested in purchasing a disk with the full slide show on for a fiver, I will donate the money to The Blitz project, an education and development project in Indonesia I am supporting from afar. The slide show makes a great feature for disability awareness and equality events.


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Ancient Times


Sin, Religion and the Body Beautiful


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According to the fossils Disabled People have always been here!


Many Neanderthal skeletons show signs of broken bones and other traumas.


As long as our ancestors could forage and escape predators….



…there was no reason why older individuals and those with impairment could not live a full life successfully

Disability features in ancient Hindu texts such as the Rig Veda (3,500 BC) and the Bhagavad Gita (500 BC)

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The holy book of Hinduism, the Bhagavad-Gita begins with the inquiry of the blind King, (Dhritaraashtra) about the victory of his sons in battle.

2000 BC Ancient Babylonian Civilisation
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Diviners of the future in Ancient Babylon kept a list of birth impairments with specific prophetic meanings connected to each. Thus, the births of disabled children were used to.. Predict The Future!!