Disability History Month | Implementing it into school curriculum

Disability History Month runs 16th November — 16th December. It was set up in 2010 to provide a platform which focuses on the history of disabled people’s struggle for equality and human rights.

This month aims to celebrate the lives of disabled people and it creates a platform to promote equality and human rights.

This Month covers Important dates such as:

· AIDs/HIV Day (1st December)

· International Day of People with Disabilities (3rd December)

· International Human Rights Day (10th December)

It also runs during Anti-Bullying Week (19th — 23rd November) which is so important as 70–80% of young disabled people claim to be bullied in School and College

UK HISTORY MONTH 2022 with a Broken Heart. Text says “Disability, Health Wellbeing”

16 November — 16 December

This Year’s Theme

Disability History Month’s theme is Disability, Health, and Wellbeing. The idea of this month’s theme is to highlight how fragile disabled people’s rights are and how the Covid Pandemic has demonstrated this globally.

“Our rights whether we live in institutions, care homes or independently in our own homes and the community, can be ridden over by politicians, medical professionals or the population in general judging the world by ableist standards and practising deeply entrenched disablist responses”

They also say that the medical model to disability and the barriers that compromise disabled people’s health, now and in our past, were failed to be identified and acted upon which results in disabled people being held responsible for their disability instead of being given the support and healthcare they require.

The years of hardship aimed at disabled people and destroying our well- being have arisen from deeply held perceptions of our unworthiness rooted in the history of our oppression. UK Disability History Month aims to analyse this history and provide illustrations of how this defiance of human rights can and will be reversed

Why should it be implemented?

There was 20% of the population in the UK have disabilities and it could be beneficial for young disabled children to learn about their history and it would also teach other children how disabled people were treated in important periods in history or that important historical figures were disabled.

This could reduce disability discrimination and young people would have empathy and understanding for disabled people instead of seeing them as different from them.

Disability History Month is an opportunity within schools to develop a culture of respect for difference and a chance to remove barriers.

How to implement it?

Disabled History is intertwined into every historical period from Medieval to the Second World War. It’s about highlighting the most significant things for children and young people for example, in psychology you can discuss the mental asylums and how disabled people were in them because families couldn’t handle the care and the government placed them in institutions.

Tragically, there is still circumstances where disabled people are still in hospitals because there is no social care and that can have an impact on emotional wellbeing which relates to psychology.

In History, we talk about the Holocaust and the impact that had on Jewish families and communities even in present day but there are parts of the story that never get discussed fully. For Example, did you know that the Nazis ran a euthanasia programme known as T4 to cleanse Germany of “undesirable” disabled children.

By including disabled history into mainstream curriculum, young people leave education fully informed and better understanding of their disabled peers.

Ciara McCarthy

📧: [email protected]

Disability History Month runs 16th November — 16th December. It was set up in 2010 to provide a platform which focuses on the history of disabled people’s struggle for equality and human rights.

This month aims to celebrate the lives of disabled people and it creates a platform to promote equality and human rights.

This Month covers Important dates such as:

· AIDs/HIV Day (1st December)

· International Day of People with Disabilities (3rd December)

· International Human Rights Day (10th December)

It also runs during Anti-Bullying Week (19th — 23rd November) which is so important as 70–80% of young disabled people claim to be bullied in School and College

UK HISTORY MONTH 2022 with a Broken Heart. Text says “Disability, Health Wellbeing”

16 November — 16 December

This Year’s Theme

Disability History Month’s theme is Disability, Health, and Wellbeing. The idea of this month’s theme is to highlight how fragile disabled people’s rights are and how the Covid Pandemic has demonstrated this globally.

“Our rights whether we live in institutions, care homes or independently in our own homes and the community, can be ridden over by politicians, medical professionals or the population in general judging the world by ableist standards and practising deeply entrenched disablist responses”

They also say that the medical model to disability and the barriers that compromise disabled people’s health, now and in our past, were failed to be identified and acted upon which results in disabled people being held responsible for their disability instead of being given the support and healthcare they require.

The years of hardship aimed at disabled people and destroying our well- being have arisen from deeply held perceptions of our unworthiness rooted in the history of our oppression. UK Disability History Month aims to analyse this history and provide illustrations of how this defiance of human rights can and will be reversed

Why should it be implemented?

There was 20% of the population in the UK have disabilities and it could be beneficial for young disabled children to learn about their history and it would also teach other children how disabled people were treated in important periods in history or that important historical figures were disabled.

This could reduce disability discrimination and young people would have empathy and understanding for disabled people instead of seeing them as different from them.

Disability History Month is an opportunity within schools to develop a culture of respect for difference and a chance to remove barriers.

How to implement it?

Disabled History is intertwined into every historical period from Medieval to the Second World War. It’s about highlighting the most significant things for children and young people for example, in psychology you can discuss the mental asylums and how disabled people were in them because families couldn’t handle the care and the government placed them in institutions.

Tragically, there is still circumstances where disabled people are still in hospitals because there is no social care and that can have an impact on emotional wellbeing which relates to psychology.

In History, we talk about the Holocaust and the impact that had on Jewish families and communities even in present day but there are parts of the story that never get discussed fully. For Example, did you know that the Nazis ran a euthanasia programme known as T4 to cleanse Germany of “undesirable” disabled children.

By including disabled history into mainstream curriculum, young people leave education fully informed and better understanding of their disabled peers.

Ciara McCarthy

📧: [email protected]