ABSTRACT

How any group of people get on in life is very often dependent upon how that group is viewed and treated by the rest of society. This first section outlines the ways people with disabilities have been viewed throughout history and the way these views have been perceived and interpreted by individuals and groups working in disability research. DePauw (1997) highlights the importance of people’s perceptions and definitions of the body and their effect on perceptions of disability and argues that:

An understanding of the body, our attitudes toward the body, … is important because how we view the body and how we define sport impacts how we view disability and individuals with disabilities.