Page 30 - Community Living Magazine 34-1

history
From sidelined to expert storytellers

The history of learning disability was long neglected, with is both fruitful and important. People
firsthand accounts of those affected missing. Susanna Shapland bring their own experiences to stand
alongside the historical documentary
describes the movement that changed this evidence, often from official sources such

as councils and institutions and, in so
doing, challenge and disrupt these
or decades, the history of learning accepted narratives, revealing something
disability was not given the far more nuanced and complex.
Frecognition it deserved. It was Their stories also serve as a corrective
subsumed into related topics such as the to excessive claims of progress that were
history of eugenics or of mental health, particularly prominent with the closing of
and historians tended to rely solely on the long-stay institutions, reminding
documentary evidence to write histories historians and policy-makers alike that,
of policies or institutions. while much has changed, much has stayed
Those with experience of living with a the same and things still need to change.
learning disability were sidelined and In this way, people with learning
silenced or, at best, portrayed as merely disabilities and historians are working
victims of an uncaring or cruel system. cooperatively as historian activists,
This reflected how those with learning coming together to tell their stories and
disabilities were perceived – as people who influence policy. The lives of people with
were unable to articulate their experiences learning disabilities as told by them are,
or to understand them, and who needed quite rightly, central to these works, and
to be spoken for rather than listened to. historians have learnt how to adapt their
This began to change in the 1970s with practices to accommodate these experts
the burgeoning disability rights movement. so their stories are properly told.
Speaking Up events gave people with The next step, as seen by people such
learning disabilities the chance to speak as Atkinson and Walmsley, is to include
for themselves and tell their life histories. Forgotten Lives pioneered the use of firsthand more accounts from other groups with a
This was followed in the 1980s with the accounts in learning disability history role in the history of learning disabilities.
formation of self-advocacy groups such as Witness to Change: Families, Learning
People First, run for and by people with Most importantly, they challenged other Difficulties and History (2005) highlighted
learning disabilities. delegates if they believed something had how much could be learnt from families,
These self-advocacy groups gave people been misrepresented, thus cementing their particularly in moving away from a history
the chance to share own experiences. In identity as the true experts in their history. dominated by the long-stay institution.
doing so, they began to reclaim their life In the same year as she co-founded the The voices of social workers, nurses and
stories and challenge the portrayal of SHLD, Atkinson met Mabel Cooper, a other practitioners also need to be heard
themselves as victims or faceless case former patient of St Lawrence’s Hospital to give justice to the rich, complex nature
studies. They revealed themselves to be in Surrey, who was then chair of People of the history of learning disabilities. n
survivors – actively resisting the policies and First London. Cooper had a strong desire
institutions that had dominated their lives. to tell her life history. Further reading
Using official records to fill in any gaps, Open University Social History of Learning
Evidence seeks experience they worked together to bring Cooper’s Disability (SHLD) Research Group. https://
In 1994, two Open University academics story to a wider audience. It was tinyurl.com/y4jw7qny
Open University. Mabel’s Story. https://tinyurl.
founded the Social History of Learning published in Forgotten Lives: Exploring the com/yyhakr32
Disability Research Group (SHLD). History of Learning Disability in 1997 – an Atkinson D, Jackson M, Walmsley J, eds (1997)
Shocked by the lack of research into the experience that was both emotional and Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History of
history of learning disability services (for empowering. Cooper inspired many Learning Disability. Kidderminster: BILD
example day centres) and the absence of others to tell their stories, and shared Atkinson D, McCarthy M, Walmsley J et al, eds.
stories from learning-disabled people hers with other groups to promote (2000) Good Times, Bad Times: Women with
themselves, Jan Walmsley and Dorothy empathy and understanding. Learning Difficulties Telling Their Stories.
Atkinson set up the SHLD to provide a Other books have followed, mostly Kidderminster: BILD
forum where people could come together published by BILD (as was Forgotten Brigham L, Atkinson D, Jackson M, Rolph S,
and share research and stories. Lives), each redrawing the relationship Walmsley J, eds (2000) Crossing Boundaries:
People with learning disabilities were between the researcher and researched in Change and Continuity in the History of
invited to all SHLD conferences, where a quest to facilitate emancipatory rather Learning Disability. Kidderminster: BILD.
Rolph S, Atkinson, D, Nind M, Welshman J, eds
they chaired panels and gave papers than participatory research. (2005) Witness to Change: Families, Learning
about their research and life histories, Collaboration between academic Difficulties and History. Kidderminster: BILD
alongside a growing number of academics historians and people with learning • Links to more on learning disability history can
working on this strand of history. disabilities on an increasingly equal footing be found at www.cl-initiatives.co.uk/?p=6494

30 Vol 34 No 1 | Autumn 2020 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk