ABSTRACT
The Task Force recommended extending the definition to include people with HIV and serious cancer. In history, disability has been misunderstood and vilified; in biblical times it was seen as the result of a person’s wrongdoing, or that of their parents. Nixon said disabled people have been accustomed to being:
treated as members of a deviant minority group. Deviant status has meant that disabled persons have been relegated to a position outside the mainstream. Minority status has meant that disabled persons as a stereotyped and stigmatised category or group have been accorded degraded status, little power, and few opportunities for economic advancement or success.
