History from the inside: towards an inclusive history of intellectual disability

Abstract

This paper reviews the place of the ‘voice’ in the history of intellectual disability, drawing principally on developments in the UK, but also making reference to comparative developments in other countries. Various approaches have been used by research historians to collect and represent the voices of those involved in this history; including biographical reconstruction, oral history, institutional histories and life histories. In response to the challenge, ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ the slogan of the disabled people's movement, the paper argues for the careful use of oral and biographical accounts to augment histories told through official sources and examines some of the methodological challenges associated with such approaches. However, the argument of this paper, ultimately, is in favour of what we are calling ‘inclusive history’, where academic historians and oral/life historians contribute to the development of a shared history of intellectual disability.

Keywords:

• intellectual disability
• biography
• oral history
• life histories
• institutional histories
• inclusive history

Notes

1. Bedfordshire Record Office, Mental Health sub-Committee papers, He Sub P 6/2, April 1949.

2. Bedfordshire Record Office, Mental Health sub-Committee papers, He Sub P 6/2, January 1950.