Databases

History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century provides historical evidence demonstrating how society has interacted with and regarded individuals considered to have disabilities. It presents monographs (books), manuscripts, and ephemera that provide a historical view of disabilities from the seventeenth to twentieth century. The archive provides many avenues to approach disability history. It demonstrates how persons with disabilities have worked for equal rights through activism and advocacy. Some materials include personal memoirs of experiences with disabilities or the accounts of those who treated them. Rehabilitation, treatments, methods of education, and other forms of remediation are documented. Reports and proceedings of organizations and institutions that sought to help or heal those with disabilities are available for review. Policies and programs concerning persons with disabilities are also available (i.e. labor laws, legal rights, rehabilitation programs, etc.)

The database is also accessible via Gale Primary Sources.